Kolkata, September 24, 2013: The nimble fingers moulding clay into idols of the goddesses ahead of the Durga Puja festival, the biggest annual festival of the State, may soon be in search of some other work, as the artisans of Kumartuli in the city’s northern area struggle to survive in the face of a severe shortage of labour.

With less than a month left for the festival, work is on in full swing at Kumartuli, along the banks of the river Hooghly. But the unwillingness of the younger generation to join the trade has resulted in the shortage of hands, adding to the woes of the artisans who are forced to work in cramped studios.

“I do not want my sons in this profession of idol making. There is no future here,” said Gopalchandra Pal, a veteran artist who has been making idols since 1964.

His two sons are computer mechanics. “I am the last one in my family in this profession,” he said as his fingers effortlessly shaped the goddess’s fingers.

He said people were nowadays getting 100 days-work in their villages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. So why should they come here for work?

Echoing Mr. Pal’s view, Debobrata Pal, a studio owner said: “Even a decade ago we used to make a 20 per cent profit from each idol. Now that has come down to five.”

“We are supposed to get kerosene which is used to dry the idols four times a month from the Food Corporation of India. Suddenly from this year we are only getting it once a month,” said Babu Pal, spokesperson of the Kumartuli Mritshilpa Sanskriti Samity, an organisation of artisans. 

Ranjit Sarkar, the organisation’s secretary, believed the main reason for the younger generation avoiding the profession was its “temporary nature.” Those already working here were doing it out of “financial compulsion.”

The Left Front-led State government had taken up a project to shift all the studios in Kumartuli to a State-owned warehouse to renovate the old studios. However, despite repeated appeals to the State authorities and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in July last year, very little progress had taken place, said Mr. Sarkar.

His complaint was that “the government has done little to improve the lot of the artists here.”

Source: The Hindu, September 24, 2013