Jajpur: Even though artisans of this district have proved their mettle in carving beautiful stone sculptures they are a neglected lot.
Thanks to the apathy of the state government, the sculptors who breathe life into stones live a life of misery due to lack of other livelihood opportunities and marketing facilities for their products, a report said.
Moreover, they fall prey to middlemen and agents who fleece them by purchasing their products at throwaway prices.
Sources said around 200 sculptors from Sukhuapada and Kuakhia in the district and Konark in Puri district are engaged in carving stone idols at Swaroopganj in Rajasthan for a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 – Rs 25,000. The idols made by them are exported to the US for installation at the under-construction Swami Narayan Temple there.
However, here around 10,000 artisans are struggling to survive in the villages of Palei, Chhatia, Gopalpur, Antia, Kampagad, Baidyarajpur, Kundapatna, Balipatna, Panasudha, Bhartapur, Kulagaon, Haripur, Lakhsmi Nagar, Sankhachila, Routrapur and Samantrapur.
These artisans work on stone, clay, metal, textile, handloom, wood and horn. Their work has won them appreciation outside but here they have to remain idle due to non-availability of stone and lack of marketing facilities.
While the government is leasing out iron ore, chromite and other mineral mines to industrial units and converting forest land to non-forest category it has allegedly given short shrift to sculptors. Many sculptors are not interested in new professions while others have stopped working due to lack of stones.
This happened as the district administration is not leasing out stone mines to them or making arrangements to supply stones at cheaper rates to them despite the presence of stone mines in this district. As a result, most sculptors are migrating outside the state for work.
Sculptors Shankar Sethi and Sahadev Nayak of Bolgadia village said they migrated to Rajasthan as there is acute shortage of raw material in the district and as the government is doing nothing to help them.
Manoj Kumar Behera, general manager of the District Industries Centre (DIC), said the sculptors could not be given mining lease as most of the stone mines are in forests. However, the DIC is providing all assistance to sculptors whenever they seek help, Behera claimed.
