Durga Puja 2020: Goddess Durga Depicted as ‘Migrant Mother With Her Children’ at Kolkata’s Barisha Club

Other deities including Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi have also been replaced with idols of migrant workers.

Kolkata: Needless to say, migrants workers are among the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and the image of thousands of people walking on foot in a bid to return home during the lockdown still haunts us.

In a bid to pay tribute to the women migrant workers and highlight their pain, organisers of a Durga Puja pandal in a Kolkata neighbourhood have decided to replace the traditional idol of Goddess Durga with that of a migrant worker with a child on her hip.

Clad in a saree, the mother will be seen walking with a shirtless toddler in her arms. Other deities including Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi have also been replaced with idols of migrant workers.

According to Telegraph India, the Barisha Club Durga Puja committee in Behala, Kolkata, has decided to install the statue to highlight the plight of migrant workers who were left without jobs and forced to walk hundreds of kilometres home.

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See the pictures here:

Pallab Bhowmick's Ma Durga for the Pujo this year, as a migrant worker with her children.
Very evocative. pic.twitter.com/aAlJVI9XKO

— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 16, 2020

Migrant Mother as Goddess Durga at a Durga Puja Pandal this year

The idol of a migrant worker mother, a shirtless toddler (Kartick) in her arms, that will be worshipped as Goddess Durga at Barisha Club in Behala, West Bengal

Heart-touching! https://t.co/RsCm4L2D91 pic.twitter.com/eHej5ymX8R

— Dheeraj Aap ( Fan Of Ak & Ms ) (@AapActive123) October 15, 2020

“The goddess is the woman who braved the scorching sun and hunger and penury along with her children. She is looking for food, water and some relief for her children,” Rintu Das, the artist told Telegraph India.

“During the lockdown, all I remember seeing on TV and reading in newspapers was migrant workers returning home on foot, some of them dying on the road… Durga Puja was still months away, but the indomitable spirit of the women walking home with children overwhelmed me. In my mind, they embodied the goddess,” he added.