Date: 14/09/2020
Due to Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the entire artist community faced a financial crisis and lost their means of livelihood. To help these artists, the Ministry of Culture ensured speedy and timely release of the grants to the artists under the following various Central Sector Schemes:
(Rs. in lakh)
| Sl. No. | Name of the scheme | Grant provided |
| i. | Financial assistance under Repertory Grant Scheme | 1517.04 |
| ii. | Scheme of Financial Assistance for the Development of Buddhist/ Tibetan Art and Culture | 1329.00 |
| iii. | Cultural Function and Production Grant Scheme | 886.00 |
| iv. | Scheme of Scholarship & Fellowship for promotion of Art & Culture | 881.00 |
| v. | Financial Assistance to Cultural Organizations with National Presence | 427.25 |
| vi. | Scheme of Financial Assistance for the Preservation & Development of Cultural Heritage of Himalayas | 165.00 |
| vii | Scheme of Pension & Medical Aid to Artists | 160.00 |
| viii. | Financial assistance under Seva Bhoj Yojna | 74.00 |
| ix. | Financial Assistance for Cultural Activities in Performing Arts for Building Grants Including Studio Theatres | 23.40 |
| Total | 5462.69 |
Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) have provided financial assistance of Rs. 927.83 lakh to the artists.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) being national academy of music, dance and drama have organized the following programmes during the current pandemic. A number of artists from various genres have been benefitted by these virtual activities:
i. The Akademi organizes the Webinar on weekly basis with its Fellows and Awardees in the field of music, dance, drama, folk & tribal arts and puppetry. Akademi has successfully organized 32 webinars by which 32 artists have also been monetarily benefited.
ii. Deeksha is an online training series in various dance forms like Kathak, Kutiyattam, Manipuri, Sattriya, Chhau. As on date, 15 Deeksha programmes have been organized and Rs. 11 lakh apprx. has been released to senior artists, gurus and their accompanists.
iii. An amount of Rs. 16.00 lakh was released to the artists who participated in Yog Parv – a festival of music, dance, drama, folk & tribal arts and puppetry.
Most of the organizations under Ministry of Culture are organizing following online programmes:
- Seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) under Ministry of Culture organized online programmes wherein folk and tribal artists showcased their talents through webinars, workshops, live performances on social media handles like facebook etc. Financial assistance is extended to artists as per the existing norms and rates fixed by ZCCs as remuneration of the above programmes.
- ZCCs have opened help lines to enable the artists to avail maximum benefits of the schemes of this Ministry.
- An action plan has been evolved to help artists engaged for events on virtual mode enabling them to avail financial benefits out of the grants released by the Ministry.
- Folk artists from member States are offered online platforms for their performance.
- ZCCs have coordinated with the member States and artists to get unregistered artists registered under various schemes of States for financial assistance to artists.
- ZCCs have collaborated with NGOs to promote registered artists on virtual platforms.
- SNA under the series ‘Abhivyakti’ is showcasing the programmes, festivals etc. from its archives on its social media platform.
- From October onwards, SNA has been planning to virtual festivals of music, dance, drama, folk & tribal and puppetry besides the festivals in physical from January, 2021.
This information was given by the Minister of State (I/c) of Culture and Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.