(a) whether the Union Government has initiated to protect and preserve the vanishing Tribal and Tamil Folk Art, which expresses village sensibilities such as “Nattupura Pattu”, “Parai (Thappu)”, “Villupattu” etc. towards promoting the culture of Tamil Nadu;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the funds allocated for this purpose during the last six years?
MINISTER OF STATE (I/C) FOR CULTURE AND TOURISM
(SHRI PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL)
(a) & (b) To promote and preserve the folk art and culture including tribal, seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) were set up across the country under Ministry of Culture. South Zone Cultural Centre at Thanjavur protects, promotes and preserves the vanishing Tribal and Tamil Folk Art such as “Nattupura Pattu”, “Parai (Thappu)”, “Villupattu” etc. towards promoting the culture of Tamil Nadu. SZCC invites artists in the fields of folk & tribal art from all over India including Tamil Nadu to perform in various cultural events conducted by them. Training is also being given by SZCC to protect, preserve and revive the various dying art forms including “Nattupura Pattu”, “Parai (Thappu)”, “Villupattu” etc. towards promoting the culture of Tamil Nadu under Guru Shishya Paramapara Scheme. In addition, various art forms viz. Bommalattam, Folk Theatre Festival, Modern Art & Biography, Arigar Anna, Folk Songs, Therukuthu and Kaniyan Koothu have also been documented by SZCC in Tamil Nadu.
Sangeet Natak Akademi under Ministry of Culture designed a scheme “Festival, Workshop & Exhibition” to establish/support festivals both at the regional and national levels to present classical, traditional, tribal and other forms of Indian performing arts in order to preserve art tradition in live practice and developing technique and creative process through performance and workshop, by holding and supporting music festivals, Seminars, Workshops & Exhibitions etc.
Under the said scheme, the Akademi invited Villupattu artists in Desaj (Celebrating the diverse cultural tradition of India) Festival held at Kochi in 2018 and Lok Pratibha (Festival of Young Artists) held at Delhi in 2019.
Besides Villupattu of Tamil Nadu, the Akademi presented Karagattam, Kavadi Attam, Poikkaal Kuthirai Aatam, Devarattam, Kai Silambu Attam and other art forms of Tamil Nadu in the various folk and tribal festivals organized by the Akademi.
(c) No separate or dedicated fund is allocated specifically for this purpose to various organizations under Ministry of Culture but Zonal Cultural Centres and other organizations like Sangeet Natak Akademi utilize the grants/funds allocated to them from Ministry of Culture for organizing programmes including programmes on the vanishing Tribal & Tamil Folk Art. The funds allocated to all the seven ZCCs and SZCC in particular during the last six years are as below:
(Rs. in lakh)
Sl. No. Years Funds released to all seven ZCCs Funds released to SZCC
i. 2014-15 3974.88 336.10
ii. 2015-16 6834.33 560.56
iii. 2016-17 6085.07 841.27
iv. 2017-18 4686.71 529.05
v. 2018-19 5952.69 513.45
vi. 2019-20 5732.35 639.26