(a) whether the Government has taken measures to preserve and uphold all forms of folk art and cultural heritage of the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the efforts being made to properly store the treasure of knowledge for posterity;
(d) whether the Government has taken adequate steps to preserve the cultural heritage of Bihar, specially Madhubani folk painting and folk dance; and
(e) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE (I/C) FOR CULTURE AND TOURISM
(SHRI PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL)
(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 214 FOR 8TH JULY, 2019
(a) & (b) To promote, preserve and uphold all forms of folk art and cultural heritage of the country, the Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur, which are autonomous organizations under the administrative control of Ministry of Culture, Government of India. These ZCCs organize various cultural activities and programmes on regular basis throughout the country for preservation of all forms of folk art.
(c) For proper storage of the treasure of knowledge for posterity, several art forms including the vanishing ones are being documented by these ZCCs. 894 art forms have been documented by all the ZCCs as on 31st March, 2019 in the form of audio, video and literature. Many dying art forms documented earlier are being converted into digital format for preservation as the older format can no longer be used.
(d) & (e) Bihar is the member State of Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC), Kolkata and North Central Zone Cultural Centre (NCZCC), Prayagraj. EZCC, Kolkata has organized extensive workshops for adults and school children over the past two years on Madhubani painting at Jeetwarpur, Madhubani from 26th to 30th December, 2017, from 10th to 16th December, 2018 at Indradhanush Festival, Patna and from 21st to 30th December, 2018 for children from different part of Bihar in Madhubani District.
Lesser known visual art forms of Bihar such as Tikuli art, Manjusha art, Bhojpuri art etc. & various dance forms such as Karma, Kajari, Jhijhia, Mukhota, Bhojpuri, Jhoomar, Magahi Jhoomar have also been promoted by EZCC, Kolkata across the country by engaging expert artists in these dance forms at various national level dance festivals.
Madhubani folk paintings and its artists have been promoted in the programmes like Atulya Bharat at Delhi (August, 2018) & at Patna (October, 2018) organized by the NCZCC, Prayagraj. A Madhubani Painting workshop was held in NCZCC Campus during October, 2018. Apart from the above, a workshop of 30 artists of the Madhubani Folk Painting has been organized by NCZCC, Prayagraj during the Kumbh Mela-2019 in which a large painting entitled “Ganga Avtaran” depicting the scene from origin of Ganga (Gangotri) to last point of Ganga (Gangasagar) was made.
Under Guru Shishya Parampara Scheme, Shishyas are trained in Lok Geet/ Lok Natya at Nalanda, Bihar by an expert Guru.