The Indian Ministry of Culture has collected data of over 5.5 million artists, as a part of the Cultural Mapping of India (Bharat ka sankrutik manachitran) project. The ministry will also seek help from respective state governments and other organisations to collect artist data for the project. The government will design a web portal with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC) to collect data from artists and serve as a repository, which will further help in providing grants and aid under various cultural schemes. It has also prepared a draft mission document and will consult NITI Aayog and other ministries once the document is finalised. The project was initiated to survey India’s cultural topography and the artist data entry is being executed by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) in New Delhi. The PIB release states that the ministry has conducted several expert meetings since May 2015 for this. On CCRT’s website, users will find this form (also available as a pdf to print) to fill details pertaining to music, performing, literary, visual, dance, drama, theatre, puppetry, social practices and festivals and celebration arts. It will also let artistes classify their form as endangered, practising or surviving. RSS in charge of survey? According to an August 2015 report from the ET, the program was launched by the government at that time to identify and record details of artisans and artistes in the country, by employing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Vidya Bharati and Sanskar Bharati, the RSS’…
