It is a hectic schedule for Uma (35), a native of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, at a makeshift shed on the busy Nidamanuru highway near Vijayawada. Flanked by half-a-dozen women, Uma is busy giving final touches to a large size idol of Lord Ganesha.
Come summer, and Uma and three other families descend on the city that gives them work. By the end of August, they carve out at least 50 idols, each measuring between 10 feet and 12 feet height using raw materials like Plaster of Paris (PoP), coir, bamboo sticks and water colours. Like Uma, Kishan (25) from Ahmedabad in Gujarat also ekes out a living by making colourful idols at Krishnalanka near Varadhi.
The festivities in Vijayawada provide employment for six months to several artisans who come from northern States. Local employers engage these idol makers with a promise to pay a daily salary of Rs. 300, excluding food and accommodation. Works were started five months ago in the makeshift sheds put up at Nidamanuru, Krishnalanka and Ibrahimpatnam.
“We are now giving final touches to the idols, and we hope to get orders from festival organisers from next week,” says Uma. As her family could not generate income from farming due to bad climatic conditions in Rajasthan, she and a few other families started coming to Vijayawada every summer to earn money by making idols.
“This city [Vijayawada] is helping us in addressing our financial problems. After the festival, we’ll return to our native places,” she says. “We are making three different varieties of idols this time,” Kishan says, adding that some artisans are making small idols that would be worshipped in houses.
