Tribute To Migrant Workers: Kolkata Puja Pandal Replaces Durga Idols With Statue Of Migrant Woman

The sudden imposition of the nation-wide lockdown by the government of India led to thousands of jobless and desperate migrant labourers working in different sectors of urban areas walk back to their villages. The lockdown-induced migration, with all the death and loss, has been accurately compared to the 1947 Partition as it was the century’s biggest instances of intra-state migration.

Walking hundreds of kilometres back to their home towns, poor and hungry workers were at the receiving end of injustices incurred at the hands of the negligent government which failed to take their well-being into consideration, and that’s probably an understatement. Thousands of miles were covered barefoot and on the cycle, lives were lost to fatigue, babies were delivered mid-walking, and yet, the atrocities continued.

In a typical moment of ‘art imitating life’, an artisan in Kolkata has replaced the traditional idol of Goddess Durga with that of a migrant worker mother along with her children, in a stark depiction of indomitable feminine power and strength. It is also a tribute to the struggles of the migrant workers amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The pandal has been made under the aegis of the Barisha Club Durga Puja Committee in Behala, Kolkata.

Rintu Das, the idol artist at the club said, “[The] idea came when I saw the plight of migrant workers. Woman walking with four children, without aid, is something I consider worth deifying”.

Besides the Durga idol, the idols of other gods and goddesses like Saraswati, Laxmi Ganesh and Kartik have also been replaced with idols of migrant workers. The female goddesses have been replaced with migrant workers’ daughters, carrying a duck and owl, respectively, which are considered as the deities’ chosen ‘vaahan’ (mode of transport). The migrant worker mother idol also carries a shirtless child in her arms, in place of Kartik. Besides, there is a pot-bellied child with an elephant head, signifying Ganesha. The theme of the pandal is ‘relief’, a pertinent theme in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the impoverished are at the receiving end of bad healthcare and medical facilities.

Rintu Das said, “Idea came when I saw the plight of migrant workers. Woman walking with 4 children, without aid, is something I consider worth deifying”.

In doing so, the spirit of Durga Puja has been captured with élan through a simulation that is metaphorical, and relevant to the contemporary moment.

However, deifying the migrant worker as the ‘devi’ shouldn’t come across as romanticising the kind of ordeals they went through, nor should it elude the government’s consistent failures to provide them with safety and security.

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