Artisans face hard times as Covid hits Ganesh idols’ sale in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Year after year artisans, who made the colourful Ganesh idols in the city counted on the deity to clear hurdles to financial security. But life in the shadow of the pandemic has made survival a daunting task for these artisans, busy giving finishing touches to the idols, as the festival beckons.
For the second year in a row, it’s the same story of missing customers and little income at the two major areas for Ganesh idols in Dhoolpet and Auto Nagar area in LB Nagar.
There are about 80-90 families of artisans from Rajasthan in Auto Nagar who work through the year to source raw material from their hometown to make Ganesh idols. This year, the orders are down to a trickle.
“We have just two days left for the festival but there are no orders. Before the pandemic, orders hovered around 4,000-5,000 idols. Now, there are barely 100-150 orders across the 80-90 shops in the area,” says Mallaram Bawri who has been selling idols in city for the past over 15 years.
Chennaram Bawri of Hayathnagar added: “We get raw material from Rajasthan on credit and pay after the festival. For two years we are not able to pay them. Earlier, we made a profit of Rs 2,000-3,000 on a 12-ft idol. But now I don’t think we will be able to even recover the investment.”
It’s a tale of similar setbacks on the other end of the city in Dhoolpet. Prior to the pandemic, the area was a chaos of vehicles and customers jostling to buy their favourite idol. Now, it’s a life of uncertainty for artisans waiting for buyers.
“We don’t even have the money to pay the interest on loans for raw material. If we are not able to sell these idols in the next two days, we won’t be able to survive,” said another artisan Rajan Singh.