Ritayan Mukherjee

large_01-DSC02731-RM-Maa_Durga_marching_as_migrant_labourer.jpg

medium_01-DSC02731-RM-Maa_Durga_marching_as_migrant_labourer.jpg

small_01-DSC02731-RM-Maa_Durga_marching_as_migrant_labourer.jpg

thumbnail_01-DSC02731-RM-Maa_Durga_marching_as_migrant_labourer.jpg

01-DSC02731-RM-Maa_Durga_marching_as_migrant_labourer.jpg

“That mother walking night after night with her four children – she is Maa Durga to me.”Meet Rintu Das, the artist who drew up – literally – an idol of the Goddess Durga as a migrant worker. It’s a standout sculpture in the Durga Puja pandal of the Barisha Club, Behala, in south-west Kolkata. Durga has other deities as migrant labourers for company – Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesha and more. The whole show is a tribute to the struggles of migrants amidst the coronavirus pandemic.The lockdown period had Rintu Das, 46, feeling he was “under house arrest for the past six months.” And, he says, “I have seen death as soon as I turned on the television screen, so many people were affected. So many, walking day after day, night after night. Sometimes getting not even a little food, or a little water. Mothers, girls, are all walking. That’s when I thought if I worship this year, I will worship for the people. I will honour those mothers.” And so, Maa Durga as migrant labourer mother.“The original ideas were something else,” Pallab Bhowmik, 41, who sculpted the idol on Rintu Das’ plans, told PARI from his home in West Bengal’s Nadia district. Even before the fanfare of the 2019 Durga Puja had ended “the Barisha Club organisers had already begun preparing for this year’s puja. But then the Covid-19 pandemic made it clear that 2020 would be different – so the club had to abort the old plans.” And the new ones were woven around the lockdown and labour distress.

“While I created the idols of Maa Durga with her children and Mahishasura,” says Bhowmik, “other artisans worked on various aspects of the pandal – under the supervision of Rintu Das, art director for the Barisha Club’s puja.” With the economic situation deteriorating across the country, all puja committees were affected. “Barisha Club too had to slash its budget by half. Since it was not possible to hold on to the original theme, Rintu da came up with this idea of Durga as a migrant mother. We discussed it and I started sculpting the murti. I would say this pandal is the fruit of teamwork.”The circumstances, says Bhowmik “made me create a Durga suffering along with her hungry children.” Like Das, he had seen numerous “images of impoverished mothers with their kids” making those long walks to their homes in the villages. As an artist based in a rural town, he also could not forget the struggles of the mothers he had seen around him. “It took almost three months of work to complete this in my hometown of Krishnanagar in Nadia district. From there it went to the Barisha Club,” says Bhowmik who, while studying at Government Arts College, Kolkata, was greatly influenced by the work of famous artist Bikash Bhattacharjee, whose painting Darpamayee inspired his conception of Durga.The pandal’s theme has won wide appreciation from the public. “This pandal is about us,” one worker told me, before disappearing into the back alleys. There have been the inevitable trolls on the net, condemning the portrayal of Durga in a migrant avatar. But, says an organising committee spokesperson, “This goddess is a mother to everyone.”And, says Pallab Bhowmik to those who criticise this portrayal: “The sculptors, idol-makers and artists of Bengal have always imagined Durga as the women they see around them.”Thanks to Smita Khator and Sinchita Maji for their help with this story.

Maa Durga marching as migrant labourer

ವಲಸೆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರಂತೆ ಮೆರವಣಿಗೆ ಹೊರಟ ದುರ್ಗಾ ಮಾತೆ

കുടിയേറ്റ തൊഴിലാളി സ്ത്രീയായി ദുര്‍ഗ്ഗ മാതാവ്‌

প্ৰব্ৰজিত শ্ৰমিকৰ ৰূপত মা দুৰ্গাৰ যাত্ৰা

ਪ੍ਰਵਾਸੀ ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰ ਦੇ ਰੂਪ ਵਿੱਚ ਮਾਰਚ ਕਰਦੀ ਮਾਂ ਦੁਰਗਾ

புலம்பெயர் தொழிலாளராக நடக்கும் துர்க்கை

पायी निघाली स्थलांतरित कष्टकरी दुर्गामाता

মা দুর্গা চলেছেন পরিযায়ী শ্রমিকের অবতারে

ପ୍ରବାସୀ ଶ୍ରମିକ ଭାବରେ ଚାଲୁଛନ୍ତି ମା’ ଦୁର୍ଗା

प्रवासी मज़दूर बनकर मार्च करती मां दुर्गा

مہاجر مزدور کی شکل میں مارچ کرتی ماں دُرگا

Nadia and Kolkata

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Maa Durga marching as migrant labourer

A Durga Puja pandal in Behala, Kolkata, has the goddess in a unique avatar

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit