Ministry of Culture administers a scheme by the name of ‘Scheme for Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists’, under which financial assistance is provided to the selected veteran artists. Assistance provided under the scheme is not any kind of pension to these artists. The number of senior artist beneficiaries received financial assistance and amount disbursed under the scheme during last three years are given as below:

Following are the eligibility criteria for providing financial assistance under the scheme:

1. The applicant artist should have contributed significantly in their specialized fields of arts, letters etc. in their active age or are still contributing;
2. The applicant artist should be of age 60 years and above;
3. Annual income of the applicant must not exceed Rs. 72,000/-;
4. The applicant artist should be a recipient of artists pension of at least Rs. 500/- per month from the concerned State Government/UT Administration, or the artistic credential of the applicant is verified and recommended by the concerned Zonal Cultural Centre (ZCC), Ministry of Culture.
5. The applicant artist should not be getting financial assistance under any other scheme of the Ministry of Culture.

The quantum of financial assistance up to Rs. 6000/- per month till life is being provided to the selected veteran artists under the scheme.

Release of financial assistance to the selected artists under the said scheme depends on submission of certain mandatory documents such as, Digital Life Certificate (DLC) once in a year, annual income certificate once every five years, documents showing receipt of artist pension, if any, from the concerned State Government/UT Administration. Sometimes non-submission of all these mandatory documents by the selected veteran artists results in delay in disbursal of their financial assistance. Once the requisite mandatory documents are received from the selected artists, which is a continuous process throughout the year, all efforts are made to disburse the financial assistance expeditiously. 

To mitigate the hardships faced by the beneficiaries selected under the scheme, the following steps have been taken by this Ministry in recent years:

1. The quantum of financial assistance under the scheme has been enhanced from Rs. 4000/- per month to Rs. 6000/- per month w.e.f. June, 2022;
2. The annual income ceiling has been revised from Rs. 48000/- per year to 72000/- per year w.e.f. August, 2023.
3. The requirement of submitting income certificate every year has now been done away with and instead it is now required to be submitted once in five years;
4. Earlier, the applicant artist applying under the scheme should have mandatorily been a recipient of artists pension of at least Rs. 500/- per month from the concerned State Government/UT Administration. This condition has been relaxed and now also provides for verification and recommendation of the artistic credentials by the concerned Zonal Cultural Centre (ZCC), Ministry of Culture in case the applicant is not a recipient of artists pension from the State Govt./UT Administration.

This information was given by Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today

*****

M Annadurai