A clay-and-flower Ganapati making workshop run by Prakrriti Enterprises for children of daily-wage workers — a small CSR initiative with a clear water-pollution message.
Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi 2025, Prakrriti Enterprises organised an eco-friendly Ganapati murti making workshop with children of daily-wage workers — a small effort with a focused message: festivals and rivers can coexist.
The idea
Every September, Maharashtra's lakes and rivers absorb thousands of plaster-of-Paris idols whose paints and binders linger in the water column long after the festival ends. Clay idols, by contrast, dissolve back into the water without harm — which is why we put clay, marigold petals and a few simple tools in front of a roomful of kids and let them make their own.
Who joined
The children we worked with came from a colony of daily-wage construction workers near our Pune workshop. Many of their families help build the very residential complexes whose STPs we design and maintain. Putting them at the centre of the story — not as recipients of charity but as the makers in the room — was the point.
What came out of it
Each child took home an idol they had made themselves. Several families followed up by immersing the murtis in steel buckets at home rather than in the lake — exactly the behaviour change a one-day workshop hopes to spark.
If you'd like to support next year's workshop with supplies, time or a venue, get in touch.