SIKA honours unsung heroes of Bengal – ‘SRESHTHO SHAROD KARIGORI SAMMAN’

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Kolkata, 26th September 2022: The magnitude of Durga Puja has increased multi-folds over the years and has now been declared as the largest festival. In recognizing the cultural importance and its heritage, SIKA India hosted ‘SRESHTHO SHAROD KARIGORI SAMMAN’, a special initiative that recognizes the unsung heroes through a specially curated campaign.


While the festivity receives its desired acknowledgement and people enjoy Puja days with their friends and family, this important section of the ”crowd” is missed out and neglected. As end visitors, we get to enjoy the best of craftsmanship as we see when visiting the Puja pandals. But it all starts from scratch every year and we ignore the hard work put behind… It is the hard-working artist, pandal makers and others who work behind the scene for months to deliver our most loved festivity. Once the festivities begin in urban cities, the actual heroes behind the scene go back to their dull and boring lives.


The concept of SIKA India ‘SRESHTHO SHAROD KARIGORI SAMMAN’, identified ten such hard working souls and changed their entire festive experience. At the same, promoting and encouraging these unrecognized faces. Renowned Durga Puja’s like Hatibagan Sarbojonin, Notun Dal, SB Park Thakurpukur, DumDum Tarun Dal, DumDum Tarun Sangha & Bharat Chakra are part of this never before initiative.


The campaign involved identification of one mason per pandal who were the focal point in the campaign. Families of these artisans were also involved in the approach and given the best service possible for their efforts and hardwork. The campaign also culminated a video that had captured the journey of identifying these men till gratifying them on stage. Families of these artisans were given a good time to enjoy one night stay in a four star hotel and a day tour in the city.


Durga Puja is nothing without the involvement of its people and the character it has which it gets from its puja committees, artists, masons, and the people of Kolkata. The work of the artisans, artists and mason involved in the making of Puja pandals and the idols of Durga Puja that provide the festival its entire fervour and fanfare. These include Shilpis of Durga’s Protima, members from clubs, Raj Baris, Pandal makers, artists, the Dhakis (drummers), the Pujaris, the jewellery makers of Protimas among others. This unique initiative would create a platform to recognize these artisans and celebrate the spirit of puja in the right cord.

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