Kolkata teenager fights social evils by sculpting dolls

A teenaged girl in Kolkata has turned her one time favourite pass time of sculpting dolls into a medium to highlight social evils like female infanticide and crime against women.

By Soma Mitra

Sarenga (West Bengal), June 24 : A teenaged girl in Kolkata has turned her one time favourite pass time of sculpting dolls into a medium to highlight social evils like female infanticide and crime against women.

Fourteen-year-old Ivy is a resident of Sarenga Village in Howrah District, 50 kilometres from Kolkata.

She started making dolls during her childhood. But with the passage of time, she decided to draw people's attention towards social evils that were affecting society at large."Since my childhood, I have had a liking for dolls. Besides studies, I made these dolls. My dolls didn't look proper initially, but with practice I mastered the right method. Through dolls, I try to convey social messages against female infanticide, female foeticide, and crime against women," Ivy says.

Anindya, Ivy's father, says that his daughter never received any formal training in doll-making.

"Having felt disturbed at the incidents of women exploitation, ill-treatment and especially female foeticide, Ivy asked me some way out to fight such social evils. I suggested her to raise her voice through artistic creations," he says.

Ivy earlier used to make dolls out of discarded scraps of clothes, but later she started using clay.

Some of Ivy's works have been displayed at various exhibitions.

A joint study carried out by researchers in India and Canada recently suggested that half-a-million unborn girls get aborted in India annually.

ANI