Eyes of faith, hands of toil: Pen’s artisans race against time to complete idol orders

Ahead of the Ganpati festival every year, Pen, a small town in Raigad district, comes alive with the clang of hammers and smell of wet clay as nearly 150,000 karigars or artisans labour over long hours, sculpting exquisite Ganpati idols and powering a ₹350crore economy.

- G Mohiuddin Jeddy

This year, though, the rush is greater and the thousands of workshops in the town are in overdrive, with artisans working in double shifts to finish nearly 1.8 million idols ahead of August 25, when deliveries are expected to peak.

Usually, work on idols measuring more than 6 feet - which comprise a bulk of the orders and are made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) ~ starts in May. Nationalised banks extend loans of worth more than ₹200 crore to artisans every year to kickstart the process.

But this year, work commenced only after the Bombay High Court, on June 9, lifted the ban on use of PoP.