MillenniumPost
Bengal

Theme Pujas threatening livelihood of coolies

Kolkata: Theme-based community Durga Pujas are increasingly becoming popular both in the city and its suburbs, but it has another story to tell as well. The trend is curbing the income of hundreds of people engaged in carrying the idols to the venue and then for immersion.

These persons, many of whom come from the villages, are called "coolies". They are engaged temporarily by Durga Puja organisers to put the idols on vehicles to carry them to pandals and then taking them for immersion at the end of the Pujas.

According to a section of these people, now they are getting engaged by lesser number of Durga Puja organisers compared to a couple of years ago. This is because idols in many Puja pandals are smaller in size now and volunteers or members of Puja committees themselves are capable of carrying the same and putting them on trucks. As a result, the coolies are not getting engaged for the job.

"This is mainly happening in the suburbs where Durga Puja organisers are showing reluctance to engage us. It helps them to save some money. But we are losing our jobs," said Sambhu Sardar, who comes to Kumartuli every year from Joynagar in South 24-Parganas to make some money by carrying the idols.

Sardar said: "Last year each of us had earned around Rs 11,000 to 12,000 by carrying Durga idols. This time it has dropped to around Rs 7,000".

He added that in Howrah his team used to get around Rs 16,000 from five Puja organisers. But this time it has gone down to around Rs 6,000.

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