Pandemic dashes hopes of effigy makers

Strap: No buyers for Ravana, Meghnad, Kumbhakarna

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 21

Though life has limped back to normalcy in most markets, but buzz on the Old Jail Road is still missing in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Every year, people used to visit the Old Jail Road to purchase effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakarna, without which Dussehra celebrations remain incomplete.

Around 100 to 150 craftsmen have been rendered jobless due to the pandemic as numerous dussehra committees buy effigies from this market.

Artisans spend most of their time giving shapes to effigies for their customers who hail from Jammu, Hoshiarpur, Chamba, Chandigarh and Tarn Taran.

Artists who had been in this trade since five decades said after the Amritsar Dussehra tragedy, their business and profit reduced to half, but the pandemic has hit them really hard.

Sanjeevan Lal (62), a father of six kids, said, “I have been preparing effigies from the past 45 years. Dussehra is the only time of the year, when we earn enough. This year, due to restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19, there is little chance of Ramlila getting the nod. I cannot believe I am sitting idle. Earlier, we used to rely on Dussehra to make up for our losses. However, all our hopes have been dashed to the ground.”

“Earlier, two months before Dussehra, we used to collect material from Meerut, Himachal Pradesh and other states. We had craftsmen from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan, who would do the finishing work on effigies. Now, there is no hustle and bustle in the market. We don’t know if we’ll get permission to carry on with our work,” said Arjun Rajput (23).

After losing his parents, Arjun had been making effigies from the last six to seven years. He is proud that he managed to marry off his two sisters from money he had earned after selling effigies.

“A pair of three 50-ft effigies gives us a profit of around Rs 60,000. And by the time Dussehra arrives, we easily earn up to Rs 1 to 2 lakh. A 25-ft effigy cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. We earn around Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 from small effigies,” he said.

More than 50 families, mostly from Uttar Pradesh work hard to meet the demand, which they also receive from Non-Resident Indians as well.

Sanjeevan was a national-level wrestler in the early 1980s and he had also participated in the Asian Games.

He left his sporting career to help his father in expanding the business. Nowadays, he is making articles to be sold in temples.