Having made little progress since its launch in 2017, the National Mission on Cultural Mapping has now been handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), which is gearing up for a trial run in 75 villages in October, according to officials.
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The Culture Ministry had approved the mission in 2017 with a ₹469 crore budget from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, according to the administrative approval for the project. However, officials said the project had been slow to take off.
In response to a question in the Lok Sabha on July 19, Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the Ministry was working on the cultural mapping mission to build a comprehensive database of artists, art forms and other resources from organisations under the Ministry.
“So far 14.53 lakhs artists/artisans have been registered on NMCM portal through secondary sources State/UT-wise. However, no direct benefits or assistance has been extended through this Mission to the registered artists/institution,” the Minister’s written reply read.
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IGNCA Member Secretary Sachidanand Joshi told The Hindu on Thursday that the cultural mapping project had recently been handed over to the IGNCA. He said the work of creating a database for folk arts and mapping of heritage of villages would be carried out over five years.
Teams of volunteers from the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghathan, the National Service Scheme and students of sociology and social work would be deputed to visit villages and collect data on the art forms and heritage of the areas, he said.
“We will be starting the trial run in 75 villages next month. We are selecting one village in each State and UT as well as villages that have been a part of our freedom movement as we are celebrating 75 years of Independence,” he said.
While the entire project would take five years and a budget of ₹89 crore had been approved for it, the IGNCA would aim to complete mapping in 5,000 villages by the end of financial year 2021-2022, Mr. Joshi said.