Nasik jail inmate leads way in making idols

Almost two months ahead of the Ganpati festival, the superintendent of Nasik Road Central prison Rajkumar Sali identified sculpting skills of 42-year-old rape accused Sagar Pawar during the inspection rounds.

He put the inmate’s skills to good use and today all his Ganesh idols were sold out.

“Pawar, who is an idol maker, has been imprisoned since the last four years in a rape case. Earlier, Pawar was given a carpentry task which he could not perform well. Nearly two months back, Pawar told me to get him raw materials to make idols. Everyone was surprised. Finally, I asked the worker committee to provide him Shadu mati (clay) and other raw materials. In a fortnight, we all were surprised to see two idols made by Pawar,” Sali told the Free Press Journal.

Considering Pawar’s outstanding skill, Sali wrote to the Inspector General (Prisons) to seek permission for to allow Pawar make Ganesh idols on a larger scale and sell them.

“Pawar is the first prisoner to make Ganesh idols. He has also trained eight other inmates (age between 18 and 40 years) to make ecofriendly Ganesh idols. The inmates have used watercolours to paint the idols which are made of shadu,” said Sali. Pawar and his associates have made 175 ecofriendly Ganesh idols.

Pawar gave finishing touches to the idols before putting them up for sale.

The workers who took part and are skilled, semiskilled and unskilled are paid Rs. 61, Rs. 55 and Rs. 44 per day respectively for making the idols.

All Ganesh idols made were kept inside the prison’s Pragati sale room where public was allowed to visit and the good news is hat all 175 were sold.

Sali added that as the public is aware of eco-friendly idols, the products are in huge demand. The idols were priced as per the size. The lowest was Rs. 450 and the cosliest was Rs. 4,500.

Going by the demand, Sali said they have encouraged Pawar to make 2,000 such idols for next year’s edition.

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