Will Kumartuli in Kolkata,gripped by a labour shortage,meet the Durga Puja deadline? Mintu das swallows balls of dal and rice,stealing worried glances at a hay-and-bamboo skeleton of a 5ft-tall Durga idol. With Durga Puja only a month away,Das should have been drying clay figures by now. But the worker at artisan Neelkanta Pauls shack at Kumartuli in Kolkata has not even started slapping clay on to the skeletons. A labour crisis has gripped this squalid-but-famous artisan quarter,where every year,clay,straw and bamboo are shaped into figures of gods and goddesses. Several workers from across Bengal,Bihar and Orissa,who used to come to work at Kumartuli during the Pujas,have not come this year, says Das. Most of them have taken up work in other states under the NREGA scheme. Every autumn,30,000 migrant workers help the master artisans of Kumartuli. They form the backbone of the idol-making trade here,especially before the Pujas. More than 5,000 people have not come this year, says Sandhya Paul,as she smoothens clay on the neck of a swan. But,we cant refuse orders for idols as this season sustains us through the year, she says. Divine intervention is probably what she needs.
