By Aparajita Gupta, IANS,
Kolkata : Be it the artisans of Kumortuli who churn out hundreds of idols at this time of the year or the numerous organisers of community Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata, everyone is feeling the hard pinch of recession.
The five-day Durga Puja – West Bengal’s biggest festival that traditionally generates employment and business – will begin Sep 24. But preparations have been dealt a big blow by the economic meltdown, with a poor monsoon and rise in prices compounding the problem.
“The average raw material cost has doubled. The price of every substance needed for making idols has skyrocketed,” Basudeb Rudra Paul, an artisan in Kumortuli, the traditional potters’ colony in northern Kolkata, told IANS.
It is Kumortuli’s artisans who churn out idols of goddess Durga and her four children that are installed in public marquees across the city, with people coming in to pray as well as admire the crafstmanship.
The basic ingredients needed for making idols are bamboo, mud, hay, paints and clothes. But Rudra Paul said “cyclone Aila has hit bamboo price sharply.” Aila lashed the state in late May, devastating large tracts and destroying vegetation.
A piece of bamboo – required to make the frame of the idol – that used to cost Rs.25-30 a year ago has to be purchased now for Rs.45-60, he said. The price of hay that is used for stuffing the idols has also gone up from Rs.30 a bundle to Rs.45 a bundle.
Another problem haunting the craftsmen is the shrinking budget of committees that organise community Durga Pujas. “Due to recession, people are curtailing their budget. Those who would buy 20-foot idols are now buying 15-foot idols to fit the budget,” he said.
“Labour costs have gone up due to poor monsoon. Labourers stay in the workshop while making the idols. Most of them are farmers who in earlier years used to go back to their villages during the sowing season. But this time, due to the poor monsoon, they did not go to their villages but stayed back in the workshop,” Rudra Paul said.
The spiralling prices of commodities and vegetables have also hit the craftsmen hard.
Prodyut Paul, whose family has been in the idol-making business for over 50 years since the time of his grandfather, told IANS: “The labour cost has gone up as vegetable prices and other commodities have skyrocketed. The labourers stay in our workshops; so we have to take care of their food.”
Echoed Pradip Rudra Paul, the son of famous artisan Mohan Bansi Rudra Paul: “Input costs have almost doubled, but our charges haven’t. We are facing problems. But we cannot onpass such charges entirely to our customers.”
Puja committees that set up marquees and organise community prayers are also worried and are trying to curtail costs.
“The cost has gone up by 20 percent, labour costs have also increased. We are getting sponsors and they are giving us the same amount they used to give. But since costs have gone up, the deficit remains,” said Subrata Mukherjee, Congress leader and president of the Ekdalia Evergreen Club.
The budget of this prestigious puja in south Kolkata is the same as last year – over Rs. 24 lakh (Rs.2.4 million).
Ekdalia Evergreen Club assistant general secretary Rajpal Singh said: “This year getting sponsors is turning into a Herculean task.”
Ekdalia Evergreen Club, whose puja is into its 67th year this year, is incurring a cost of Rs.700,000, up from last year’s Rs.600,000, in setting up the ‘pandal’ or marquee where the Durga idols are housed.
The price of the idol they will instal has gone up by Rs.30,000 to Rs.150,000.
“We are trying to cut costs. This year we are mostly communicating with people via e-mail or sending couriers to save on travelling expenses. But there are some traditions, which we have to maintain. The prestige factor is there,” Singh said.
Another large community puja organiser, the Singhi Park Puja Committee, also conceded it was feeling the heat.
Singhi Park president Shankar Bose said: “This year the puja budget is Rs.25 lakh, up from last year’s Rs.22 lakh. We have had to raise the budget. But as our radius of publicity has increased, we are hopeful that we will get sponsors.”
He said the marquee construction cost has gone up from Rs.500,000 a year ago to Rs.800,000 this year.
The idol price has also gone up from Rs.90,000 last year to Rs.150,000 this year. The price has escalated drastically as the labour cost has increased by a huge percentage, from Rs.120 daily to Rs.150-160.
(Aparajita Gupta can be contacted at [email protected])