Famed idol sculptors of Kolkata’s Kumartuli face mounting losses amid dampened Puja spirits and ongoing protests

Kumartuli artisans face mounting losses amid protests demanding justice, impacting Durga Puja preparations and livelihoods.

In Kumartuli, north Kolkata’s famed idol sculpting colony, action and adrenaline are high as workers amp up work to complete their final orders for Durga Puja. However, a pall of gloom has set in as protests continue demanding justice for the doctor who was raped and killed at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the city. Amid dampened spirits, Kumartuli’s artisans are facing mounting losses with orders drying up for many of them this year.

Kakoli Pal, one of the few female idol sculptors in the colony, notes that the sales at Kumartuli have taken a hit as month-long agitations grip people across the State following the doctor’s heinous rape and murder on August 9. “All my idols would be sold out or booked out by the time one month is left for the pujas. But this year, I still have unsold idol pieces,” she said.

She recalled that the last time her idol sales were affected was the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

With protests continuing across the State, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier this month had urged people to “return to festivities” and highlighted the effect the protests had on small businesses relying on Durga Puja for their sustenance. “One month has passed. I will appeal to people to return to (Durga) Puja festivities,” she had said in a public address on September 9.

The declining condition of Puja-dependent businesses was also pointed out by a female artisan at Kumartuli who specialises in painting the goddess’s eyes. “This is our bread and butter, business is already down this year, and orders are fewer in number. How will we, the artisans, survive if people do not celebrate Durga Puja?” she asks.

According to the artisan, her regular clients have expressed apprehensions around protests continuing through the entirety of the festive season, a consequent drop in pandal hoppers, as well as logistical difficulties in transporting the idol amid protest rallies and sit-in demonstrations that have gripped the city’s streets for the last month. Many Durga Puja organisers across the State have also returned the honorarium by the State government in protest, and to demand justice for the victim.

“If we do not pray to goddess Durga then who will bring justice to the victim? Even with a heavy heart, we must participate in the pujas,” she said. “We are sad, everyone around us is sad. But Durga is the person who fights against evil spirits, the ashura. If we do not invoke her during the pujas, then who will kill the ashuras who violated and killed the victim of RG Kar?”