An eco-friendly Durga Puja that’s ‘by the women, of the women, for the women’

Adornments for the pandal at Golf Green being developed.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

This could well have gone down in history as a Durga Puja ‘by the women, of the women, for the women’ — just that the idol-makers happen to be men and a large chunk of visitors to the pandal would also be male. Or else, this year’s pandal in the prominent neighbourhood of Golf Green in south Kolkata is entirely a creation of women — right from inception to completion.

But that’s not all what it is about: the pandal, representing the beauty of nature, is made entirely of discarded clothes, and the artisans included even Muslim women, all belonging to a social enterprise run by Sujata Chatterjee, an electrical engineer by qualification but a social entrepreneur by choice.

“This is a completely woman-designed, women-decorated pandal. A total of 50-plus women from less-advantaged situations have worked on this project. They are from the slums and rural areas around Kolkata. And we are proud to say that women of all religion, caste, background have been empowered through this work,” Ms. Chatterjee, who is the theme artist for this year’s Golf Green puja, told The Hindu.

Ms. Chatterjee runs Twirl.store which, for the last seven years, has been working to reduce what she calls “urban wastage” and use it to benefit rural communities. “The women at Twirl.store are united by their desire to convert waste to wonder. So, for this project as well, they did not look at it as a work for puja pandal alone, they saw it as a celebration of sustainability and women’s empowerment,” she said.

This is her first Durga Puja installation. “The entire pandal and every piece of decor has been made by upcycling discarded clothing coming from the residents of Golf Green. Even the lights are made from small discarded pieces of bamboo that we see lying here and there. Thus, by reusing everything, even buttons, we have shown that nothing is really waste. We worked on this pandal for nearly 10 months,” Ms. Chatterjee said.

Ms. Chatterjee, who lives in Behala, has been associated with the Golf Green committee for a couple of years now as several of its members have been picking her eco-friendly products as mementos and gifts. “Then, last November, the relationship between her and our neighbourhood went a step further when she came up with the idea of recycling waste not just in daily life but also in celebration. That’s how we arrived at the theme, Amader Prithibi, Amader Pujo (our earth, our puja). We have some 800 families in the neighbourhood, and around 2,500 people gave her clothes they no longer wanted,” Tapan Dasgupta, the local councillor and president of the Golf Green puja committee, said.

Ms. Chatterjee said, “The pandal represents a scene from nature — waterfall, leaves, flowers, birds and so on. The message behind it is that Goddess Durga’s greatest blessing to this world is the earth itself and that we should look after it throughout the year by reducing waste and reusing materials as much as possible. Along with the pandal, a theme song has also been made to spread the message further. We believe this will be the beginning of more eco-friendly and upcycled installations in the future.”