Fortis Hospital, Kolkata in association with Kolkata Medical Emergency System (KMES) today come forward to train Durga Puja Committees in Basic Life Support, aimed at creating First Aid Responders so that Puja viewers can receive immediate emergency response in case of sudden medical urgencies. One half of the idol has a moustache, a pectoral instead of a breast, smaller eyelashes, and a dhoti (traditional male garment tied around the waist).
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Not to be left behind, the state government too has introduced a slew of measures to actively involve the community in the Puja festivities.
A few of the other “Durga Puja packages” unveiled for the tourists include visits to major community Puja pandals of the city and those of century-old pujas conducted by renowned families of the city, celebrating Pujas on the Ganges and a river cruise connecting Belur Math, Dakshineswar Temples. We are conscious how sites of worship and associated rituals have Brahminical associations and are a site for misogyny and prejudice’.
The Huffington Post reports that with the help of the Pratyay Gender Trust, a local transgender collective, this Durga Puja pandal will have India’s first transgender Durga idol.
The idol was crafted by China Pal, who is known as the only woman artist of the Kumortuli region.
“This is an attempt to bring an end to that discrimination cutting across caste and gender lines”, he said. “The idea is inclusion, the idea is building awareness during Pujas”.
But even as the members of the puja committee backed this plan, a few locals in the community raised questions.
Puja pandals are offering free wi-fi to the visitors by making it a wi-fi-zone. Naskar, along with Monorama Kinnar, a senior transgender member, proposed that Pratyay collaborate with Udyami Yubak Brinda.
Bhanu said that being a transgender, she had faced difficulties while visiting Durga Pujas due to negative perception of them in the society.
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Pandals mushroom across Kolkata every year on the occasion of Durga Puja, each year each locality has a different decor and a different theme.
