BENGALURU: With Ganesha Chaturthi around the corner, concerned citizens are taking matters into their own hands to make it an eco-friendly affair. For the past one-and-a-half-months, Rishita Sharma, founder of Green Utsav that promotes green events, has conducted nearly 30 workshops to teach Bengalureans to make their own clay idols. She has conducted the same in many apartment complexes, schools and one corporate house.
Her work has also been endorsed by citizen groups, Whitefield Rising and the Association of Green Industries and Services, which promote eco-friendly products. “What we do is hire an instructor and a potter. We then call people around 20 to 30 of them for one single workshop and show them how it is done and where to get the materials from. We charge a minimum of `150 from every person.
This is much less than the expenditure we incur, as just hiring a potter costs us around `3,000,” says Rishita who has conducted such workshops to societies of Whitefield and Sarjapur and other areas of the city. “By about last month we had already done many workshops, however, we never expected a response such as this,” she adds.
Even though the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has banned the use of Ganeshas made of Plaster of Paris (PoP), there is still widespread use of such idols. The KSPCB is also asking for help from organisations and those like Rishita to keep check on the growing menace of PoP idols.”Even artisans who make these PoP idols do not get a fair price.
Our motive is to create a stir and spread awareness among people and encourage them to make or buy clay idols. We know we cannot bring a huge change in the society but maybe our efforts can help people change their attitude gradually,” she adds.