Houseboats look to Onam for revival

Only around 40% of the registered vessels are currently conducting services

Babu R. has been associated with the houseboat sector for more than two decades. After initially working as an employee in a vessel, he had bought a houseboat. The business, he says, was going smoothly until the great deluge of 2018. “What the 2018 and 2019 floods could not do, has been done by COVID-19. The pandemic has brought the houseboat industry to its knees and upended the lives of people like me,” Mr. Babu says.