Saddled with crippling cost overheads and with no access to subsidised infrastructure and space, they are struggling to stoke a family tradition floundering in an unorganised industry controlled largely by traders' whims.

Prices of mud and plaster of paris, the idols' basic ingredients, are hiked annually while the artisan's investment, averaging Rs 60,000-70,000 this season, keeps pace. Moreover, prices are fixed solely by suppliers, most of whom are based in Gujarat, as well as other middlemen who are motivated byprofit rather than piety.

This year, for instance, a single gunny bag of mud has been pegged at Rs 80-85, against Rs 60-65 last year, explains Vijay Khatu, president of the Brihanmumbai Ganeshmurtikar Sangh, the apex body representing artisans. Moreover, prices shoot up further in the two months preceding Ganesh Chaturthi, when demand peaks. Plaster, which usually costs Rs 40-45 per bag, can go up to as much as Rs 60 per bag, he says.

However, Nandakishore Shivalkar, a Borivli-based artisan, says they have no choice but to pay up. ``Also, there is no way to check whether what we are paying is worth it.'' The mud is hauled to Mumbai in trucks from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, and the plaster from Rajasthan. The material is then stocked by city-based traders. ``But the traders are free to quote whatever they like and there is no effort by the state government to regulate this,'' Khatu adds.

Harishkumar Shah, a trader and proprietor of the Mumbai-based Harish & Company, justifies the prices, saying: ``The cost ofmud and plaster keeps fluctuating according to transport and labour charges.'' But prices are not the only hitch. Suppliers and traders also compromise on weight and quality, sometimes with devastating effects, Shivalkar explains. About seven to eight years ago, cracks appeared in the idols because traders had mixed ash with the mud. There was difficulty moulding the clay, painting the idols and also selling them, he explains.

Moreover, most of Mumbai's artisans belong to the lower middle-class and have no access to financial or infrastructural assistance. A large percentage of them are mill workers while the others are engaged in other occupations, which is their livelihood. Idol-making is only a seasonal trade which they keep alive for tradition's sake.

Ironically, traders have been cashing in on sentiment as well, since they know that the demand for murtis will never fall. Moreover, custom dictates that the size of an idol in each household should never be reduced, it can only be increased. This makesfor a secure market.

However, artisans, who individually express the need for government assistance, probably have only themselves to blame. They had no representative body till the Brihanmumbai Ganeshmurtikar Sangh was established in 1993-94, probably because no one took the initiative, Shivalkar explains. Nevertheless, the sangh approached Minister for Cultural Affairs Pramod Navalkar in July this year and urged the state government to accord artisans the status of `artistes'. This would entitle them to a monthly pension of Rs 500-700 as well as houses under the chief minister's 10 per cent quota.

Navalkar told Express Newsline: ``It is difficult to identify artisans who have worked full-time making idols. Yet, the state government has been paying some artisans from Vengurla, Konkan, a pension of Rs 500. I shall do something for the ones based in Mumbai as well.''

Mumbai's perennial space crunch is also hurting the artisans' cause. Most of them work at home and only a handful have karkhanaswhere they make their idols. For instance, about seven to eight karkhanas are set up every year in dilapidated buildings owned by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority at Chinchpokli. But this is the privilege of artisans who have been in the business for more than 12 years; the others have to fend for themselves.

Says Navalkar: ``The artisans would require an open ground to work at for about three months. Where is the place in Mumbai? Alternatively, they could form a company. There is great demand for Ganesh idols abroad and I am the trade and commerce minister as well,'' he hints.