The Durga Puja Economy
- frontier webmag
- Oct 31
- 5 min read
A Mirage of Prosperity Hiding a Crisis of Livelihood in West Bengal
by Sourav Goswami
In contemporary West Bengal, Durga Puja is more than a festival; it serves as the state’s primary economic engine. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former finance minister Amit Mitra have promoted “festival-led growth,” a populist narrative portraying state subsidies for religious festivals and cash transfers as visionary economic policy. The “Durga Puja economy” narrative peaked with the British Council’s 2021 report, estimating ₹32,377 crore ($4.5 billion) in economic activity—2.58% of the state’s GDP. The government and its supporters called this validation of their model. Recent media claims about a 2025 figure of INR 65,000 crore, a 14–15% rise over the previous year.
Contextualizing these numbers, West Bengal’s nominal GSDP is projected to rise from INR 18.15 lakh crore in FY 2024–25 to INR 20.31 lakh crore in FY 2025–26, an annual growth of about 12%. Simultaneously, gross public debt is set to increase from INR 7.06 lakh crore to INR 7.71 lakh crore, growing at over 9% annually.
Even accepting the INR 65,000 crore estimate, Durga Puja-related activity constitutes only 3.2% of projected GSDP—scarcely a significant stimulus for a population exceeding 100 million. The media’s portrayal is thus exaggerated, especially as these estimates lack credible sources, sectoral breakdowns, or methodological transparency.
However, reading the same British Council report reveals a more troubling reality than validation. It exposes a deep contradiction: the festival economy, despite its spectacular scale, rests on precarious labour, informal work, and a diversion of public resources from productive investment. The "billion-dollar pandal" is a glittering mirage hiding a landscape of economic decay.
The Spectacle and the Precarious Reality
The quantitative report brilliantly maps the flow of money. We see massive spending on retail (₹27,364 crore), food & beverages (₹2,854 crore), and advertising (₹504 crore). It paints a picture of a consumption boom. But it is the qualitative report, led by Queen Mary University of London, that uncovers the human cost of this boom.
The most damning finding is that 35% of the surveyed respondents earn 81-100% of their annual income from the Durga Puja festival. This is not a supplementary bonus; it is a hyper-precarious lifeline. Their employment is not based on secure contracts but on fleeting fees. As the report notes, "artists and artisans are strongly dependent on receiving fees, which is less economically secure than remuneration based on an employment contract."
In the idol-making hub of Kumartuli, the report finds an ageing industry, with 40% of studios older than 60 years and a younger generation unwilling to join a vocation that offers such financial instability. An idol-maker, Jiban Behera, is quoted in the report lamenting, “Idol-making, which is a part of our heritage, is facing a bleak future due to lack of interest among the new generation to pursue the craft. Rising costs are also a worry for artisans.”
This is the true face of the "creative economy" a system where the creators of the festival's core spectacle live on the edge of penury, their annual survival dependent on a few weeks of intense, informal work.
The Political Economy of Distraction
The "carnivalesque" atmosphere, funded by state grants (₹400-500 crore annually to puja committees), serves as an "opiate," a grand distraction from the systemic collapse in health, education, and industrial investment.
The British Council report’s data inadvertently supports this. It speaks of "backward linkages" where rural artisans from districts like Medinipur, Murshidabad, and South 24 Parganas supply materials and labour to the urban "Pulsar Pujas." However, the economic gravity, the consumption without proportional income growth indicates lower savings, and the glory are concentrated in urban Kolkata. This creates a spatial division model where cultural production is rural and poorly paid, while cultural consumption is urban and celebrated.
This model is a perfect allegory for the state's overall economic policy. The government invests in the visible spectacle— colouring the road dividers with blue and white and the festival grants—while the foundational infrastructure of public health, education crumbles. The state's health and education budget is gutted while cash-transfer schemes, which create a politics of dependency, are prioritized. The report’s own recommendation to "recognise the work of economically weaker sections" is a tacit admission that the current system is an apparent failure.
A Flawed Economic Model for a Small Open Economy
The government’s defense of this model as a "demand boost" is, arguably, an economic fallacy when applied to a state like West Bengal. Indeed it shows that in a small, open economy with a fixed exchange rate (or one heavily influenced by national policy), fiscal stimulus largely leaks out through increased imports, fueling inflation rather than domestic production.
The ₹32,377 crore "economy" is not a measure of gross value addition within Bengal; it is largely a measure of consumption. A significant portion of the retail spend on apparel, electronics, and even raw materials flows out to other states. The festival creates a temporary spike in demand, but without a corresponding boost in productive capacity and stable employment, it does not lead to sustainable growth. The result is an alarming macroeconomic picture: a state debt hurtling towards ₹7.71 lakh crore in FY 2025-26 from ₹7.06 lakh crore in 2024-25, with half its revenue consumed by interest payments, and a capital expenditure budget that is sacrificed at the altar of revenue expenditure—subsidies and grants.
Beyond the Mirage
The British Council report is a vital document, not for the headline figure the government celebrates, but for the subtext it reveals. It proves that the Durga Puja is a sole source of livelihood, but it is a precarious one. It shows an economy thriving on informal, seasonal work while formal, secure employment stagnates. The transformation of this "festival economy" from a symptom of distress into a celebrated development model is a masterclass in political storytelling. It allows the state to abdicate its core responsibilities—industrial policy, education, healthcare, and infrastructure—and replace them with a politics of spectacle and charity. The ₹32,377 crore Durga Puja economy is not Bengal’s engine of growth; it is the glittering decoration on a vehicle that is running on empty, heading towards an economic precipice while the passengers are distracted by a state-sponsored carnivalesque.
References
Ray, S. (2025, October 4). Bengal's Durga Puja eco-hits Rs 65,000cr, 70% biz from Kol. The Times of India.
Moneycontrol News. (2025, October 8). Rs 65,000 cr Durga Puja economy: Kolkata leads Bengal's festive boom despite rain, GST worries. Moneycontrol.
British Council. (2021, September). Mapping the creative economy around Durga Puja 2019.
PRS Legislative Research. (2025, February 18). West Bengal Budget Analysis 2025-26. https://prsindia.org/budgets/states/west-bengal-budget-analysis-2025-26
Bhattacharya, S., & Mahmood, Z. (2025). The roots of a populist regime: Examining the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. Studies in Indian Politics. Advance online publication.
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