Durga Pujo, as we know, is Calcutta's biggest festival! But this year is like none the city has witnessed before. A trainee doctor's horrific rape and murder inside a state-run hospital just two months before Pujo brought the city on the streets. All sections of society marched together, demanding justice. The sex workers of Sonagachi, Calcutta's largest red-light area, joined in too. Their message was loud and clear. "Won't give soil till justice is served," said Bishakha Laskar, secretary of 'Durbar', a collective of sex workers in West Bengal.

Maa Durga's idol is incomplete till soil from the doorstep of a sex worker is added to it. But here's the catch – the idol maker must beg for this soil – not demand. Sex workers are shamed all-year round, yet months before Pujo, the idol makers flock to the 'forbidden lanes' leading up to their homes to collect the soil that is necessary to give life to Durga. Now, what is at the heart of this tradition followed for generations? Is it hypocrisy? Or are the beliefs behind it not so pretentious afterall? It all lies in the very creation of Durga...

Story: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma