Several critics and social media users in Kolkata demanded the removal of a controversial sculpture installation featuring nude children near the Garia crematorium area. The artwork, installed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in October 2022 and inaugurated by then Transport Minister Aroop Biswas, was created by artist Sandip Das and reportedly inspired by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The sculptures show four children in different poses, including one defecating, one urinating, one bathing in the open and another in a pose that many online users described as inappropriate. As photos of the installation spread online again after the BJP’s April 2026 election victory in West Bengal, calls for removal of the statues intensified across Kolkata social media circles, with many critics calling the artwork “disgusting”, “poverty porn” and a symbol of civic decline during the 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule.
Political change in Bengal revives old debates around public artwork and city aesthetics
The controversy comes shortly after the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal decided to remove another high-profile sculpture outside Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. The football-themed structure, installed in 2017 ahead of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, showed giant footballing legs connected to a football-shaped torso carrying the Biswa Bangla logo and the word “Joyi”. Newly appointed Sports Minister Nisith Pramanik called the structure “grotesque” and said it did not match the aesthetic identity of the stadium, as per reports.
That move appears to have encouraged fresh online campaigns targeting several public art installations associated with the previous TMC government. Many social media users are now tagging BJP leaders and demanding that the controversial child statues also be removed from Kolkata public spaces.
Angry social media reactions call statues ‘poverty porn’ and attack Mamata Banerjee
Several strongly worded posts have gone viral online over the sculpture installation. One user wrote, “This was @MamataOfficial’s idea of ‘art’, four kids, one defacating, one urinating, one taking a bath in open and the fourth doing something unmentionable! The plaque says this installation was ‘inspired by’ Mamata Bannerjee. No wonder Kolkata is so squalid even in 2026, because Mamata Banerjee thought defacating in public is ‘art’ and no one from the high brow bhodrolok had an issue with this!” Another user posted, “One more absolute shitty artwork by Mamata Banerjee that needs to go asap, please @BJP4Bengal @SuvenduWB dada”.
The reactions continued with another viral post stating, “Mamata Banerjee got this artwork installed near the Garia crematorium. To ‘beautify’ the area around a public toilet she put in four statues of n@ked kids in the open public place; one attending nature’s call, one taking a bath, another urinating, and the girl likely ‘exploring herself’!”
Debate over public art and civic identity intensifies after regime change in Kolkata
The same social media post also said, “A stone slab sits proudly declaring the installation as inspired by Mamata Bannerjee!” Another user mocked the artwork by writing, “From Khela Hobe to Peshaab Hobe the evolution of governance. Only Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal can turn a public urinal into a socialist art exhibition. But thank God the toilet has aesthetic direction. Even Mughal emperors didn’t celebrate bathrooms with this much enthusiasm.”
One more post simply described the sculptures as “LITERAL poverty porn. Is there a Banerjee Island somewhere in the Bay of Bengal?”
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Khalid Qasid is a media enthusiast with a strong interest in documentary filmmaking. He holds a Master’s degree in Convergent Journalism from AJK MCRC. He has also written extensively on esports at Sportsdunia. Currently, he covers world and general news at NewsX Digital.
