The maker of the idol

Mallika, 54 year old women is the fourth generation artist in making idol. She was busy giving finishing touches to her idols. Her whole family works to reduce the labour cost, for one whole year making more than10000 idols this year. “We spent around three lakh to get raw materials” says Malika. These artisans will be able to sustain a year if they manage to sell around 70% of what they have made.

She says her ancestors and elders in the family take pride in their work, and she wanted her grand children to continue this work but they prefer to become engineers. She says “making of idol involves lot of hard work and she doubts if future generation will want to continue it.

Apart from making and selling idols these artisans face a tough competition from the makers of plaster of paris idols. Awareness programmes on eco friendly Ganesh festivals with environmentalists opting for clay idols are done around. They also make sure that the idols made are painted with non toxic paints. But still only few vendors opted for eco- friendly idols without colors and there are several stalls selling idols made of plaster of paris. “People also opt for these colorful idols with different designs” says a vendor.

Large number of idols are made in Purasawalkam  near Clemens road, Vepery. 

All fancy and magnificent idols are made here. There are different types of idols made here like the usual idol, Mudra idol, Mundkata, Linga, Nude, Feminine form.

This year they say there are price hike in idols due to high labour charges. The idols are also exported to various country for Indians. Though there is price hike labour’s are all scared of whether they will be able to pay back their debts and sustain a year till next Vinayakar chaturthi.