The Economics of Durga Puja

Over the past few days, roaming the streets of Kolkata and watching in sheer awe the effort, creativity and, well, money invested in organising Durga Puja in Kolkata, my thoughts repeatedly went on to the same question - exactly how big is the Durga Puja in Kolkata? There would be no less than a thousand medium-to-large puja pandals in the city, and more smaller ones. With budgets for these pandals ranging from a lakh to a few crores, your mind would begin to spin looking at the sponsors for these events and other means of fund-raising. Also account for the fact that in preparation for the Puja, the Government of West Bengal and the Kolkata Municipality makes several arrangements (such as marking-off of walking space for devotees). Truly, Durga Puja in Kolkata is a large affair.

Any student of economics would probably understand the reason for my seemingly irrational exuberance - yes, the multiplier effect, and also something I learnt recently from Vedant one day - the splintering effect. Hence, you combine the two and then you realise why its a big deal. Every cog in the Durga Puja wheel has become a separate industry - idol making, flowers, the dhak (Bengal's percussion instrument) and may I dare say even the priests' services. Hence, the multiplier effect, I estimate, would be significantly greater in the Durga Puja 'industry' than it is in other parts of the economy.

Also, let us finally get down to the scale of the rather 'ancillary' activities. Go to any pooja pandal or a restaurant at night after 9 PM during the pujas and you'll understand what I mean. Every other pandal has a serpentine queue outside it, and waiting time of a up to a couple of hours. Ditto for restaurants in Kolkata. Hence, every part of the travel and tourism industry - transportation, restaurants etc - see a huge, massive jump in footfalls this time of the year. Taxi drivers demand, and receive, a premium over the regular fare. Basically, the entire population of Kolkata is out of their homes this time of the year - and businesses make a killing.

To conclude, something that I was asked when I was buying an ice-cream at 7 AM in the morning at a Puja Pandal - raatier-er ki sholak-er?. A close approximation is 'night (tourist) or day (tourist)?' Hence, imagine that people leave their homes at 11-12 in the night, and reach back well into the day. This isn't a rarity, it is a phenomenon.

The only problem here is that I do not put in numbers to this argument. Hopefully, some day I can sit down and put numbers. Probably it will happen soon - hopefully, in the next issue of the F&I newsletter, WTF. A little bit of free advertisement at this stage: to subscribe to the F&I newsletter's e-version, write a mail to us at wtf.fni@gmail.com with your details.

Signing off!