Promotion of Literature on Art & Culture of Local Authors/Organization

What is the Promotion of Literature on Art & Culture scheme?

Promotion of Literature on Art & Culture of Local Authors/Organization is a publishing scheme of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa. According to the Directorate's citizen charter, the scheme is implemented to encourage Goan writers to publish their literature on art and culture. The entire expenditure on printing and publishing the book is borne by the government, which in return keeps the copyright of the publication.

The scheme is unusual among state cultural schemes because the government is not subsidising a publisher, it is acting as the publisher. Every year two or more books are published under the scheme depending on the availability of funds. About 1,000 copies are printed and supplied to educational institutions, libraries and cultural institutions across Goa. The author receives an honorarium.

That structure answers a real problem. Serious writing on Goan folk forms, temple traditions, festival practice or musical lineage has a small commercial market. A book on the Zagor or on Ghumatvadan may matter enormously to the record of Goan culture and still be impossible for a publisher to justify. By taking on the printing cost, keeping the copyright and pushing the copies straight into libraries and institutions rather than into bookshops, the Directorate gets the material preserved and circulated without asking it to sell.

The scheme is listed at item 3 in the Directorate of Art and Culture's citizen charter, and the charter notes that grants and assistance under it are also provided under the department's Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe development schemes.

Who is eligible for this scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are an author from Goa. The charter states plainly that "the authors only from Goa are eligible".
• You can produce a residence certificate of fifteen years or more in Goa.
• Your proposed work is literature concerned with the cultural traditions of the state, the art and culture of Goa.
• You have a handwritten script ready to submit.

You are not eligible if:

• You have already availed the benefit of this scheme. The charter is explicit that authors who have already availed the benefit shall not be considered a second time.
• You are not from Goa, or cannot establish fifteen years of residence.
• Your manuscript is on a subject outside the cultural traditions of Goa. General fiction, technical writing and books on subjects unconnected to Goan art and culture fall outside the scheme.
• You want to retain the copyright. Copyright vesting in the government is a defining feature of the scheme, not a negotiable term. An author who wants to keep the rights should apply instead under the Directorate's separate scheme for publishers of Goan authors' books.

What does the scheme give the author?

No rupee ceiling is published, because the benefit is defined as the whole cost of printing and publishing rather than as a capped grant. The honorarium payable to the author is likewise not published as a fixed figure in the charter.

What documents are required?

The citizen charter lists three requirements to avail the scheme:

1. The author has to submit his or her details.
2. A handwritten script.
3. A copy of a residence certificate of fifteen years or more in Goa.

The handwritten script requirement catches people out. It is not a formatting preference, it is the form in which the Directorate asks to receive the work at the point of application. An author with a typed manuscript should still be prepared to satisfy this condition as the Directorate applies it, and should ask the dealing officer before assuming a printout will be accepted.

How to apply for the Promotion of Literature scheme

1. Prepare the script. Write the work on a subject within the art and culture of Goa, and prepare it in the handwritten form the scheme asks for.
2. Obtain a residence certificate showing fifteen years or more of residence in Goa, from the Mamlatdar of your taluka.
3. Write out your author details — name, address, contact number, previous publications if any, and a short description of the proposed work and why it belongs to the cultural traditions of Goa.
4. Contact the dealing officer before submitting. The charter names the ACO II, Directorate of Art & Culture, Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, Goa, on 0832-2404623, email aco3-dac.goa@nic.in. Confirm the current year's requirements and whether the Directorate is taking scripts.
5. Submit the script, the author details and the residence certificate to the Directorate of Art and Culture, Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, Goa.
6. Take an acknowledgement with the inward number and date.

The Directorate's website is artandculture.goa.gov.in, and its scheme forms are also published on the Government of Goa portal under the Directorate of Art and Culture department page.

How do I check the status of my submission?

There is no online tracker. Status is checked by contacting the ACO II at the Directorate on 0832-2404623 or by writing to aco3-dac.goa@nic.in, quoting the inward number on your acknowledgement and the title of the script.

Because only two or more books are taken up each year and selection depends on the availability of funds, a script that has not been rejected may simply be waiting. It is worth asking specifically whether the script is still under consideration for a future year rather than treating silence as a refusal.

Why do submissions under this scheme not get taken up?

• Subject outside the cultural traditions of Goa. The scheme funds literature on Goan art and culture, and this is the condition applied most strictly.
• Author already benefited once. A second book from the same author is not considered.
• Residence certificate short of fifteen years, or missing entirely.
• Script not in the form the Directorate asks for.
• Funds exhausted for the year. With only two or more titles taken up annually, a good script can miss simply because the year's allocation is committed.
• Author unwilling to give up copyright, which is a condition of the scheme rather than a term open to negotiation.

What is the difference between this and the publishers' scheme?

The Directorate of Art and Culture runs a second, separate scheme titled "Scheme to provide Financial Assistance to the Publishers for publishing books of Goan Authors". Under that scheme a Goan publisher publishing a Goan author's book, with a minimum print run of 500 copies, may claim assistance not exceeding Rs 50,000, and must give a minimum 15% discount on the book. The publisher retains the publication.

The distinction matters when choosing where to apply:

• This scheme, the government publishes, the government keeps copyright, about 1,000 copies go to institutions, the author gets an honorarium.
• The publishers' scheme, a publisher publishes and keeps the book, and claims up to Rs 50,000 as assistance against the printing bill.

An author who has a willing publisher should look at the publishers' scheme. An author who has a manuscript on Goan cultural tradition and no publisher is exactly who this scheme was written for.

Where do I complain?

Grievances about the handling of a submission go first to the Directorate of Art and Culture, Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, Goa. The charter names the ACO II on 0832-2404623 as the officer to be contacted for this scheme, and the Directorate's website is artandculture.goa.gov.in.

Where the departmental route does not resolve matters, a grievance can be lodged against the department through the Government of Goa's citizen services portal at goaonline.gov.in.

Practical advice

• Pitch the cultural specificity, not the literary quality. The scheme's test is whether the work concerns the cultural traditions of Goa, and a script that makes that connection explicit in its opening pages is easier for the Directorate to place.
• Accept the copyright condition before you apply. Authors who later object to the government holding the rights lose the year.
• Ask about the honorarium in writing at the time of sanction, so there is no ambiguity later about what the author is paid on top of the printing being covered.
• Apply early in the financial year. The number of titles depends on the funds available, and those are committed as the year runs on.
• Writers should also look at the Directorate's D. D. Kosambi Research Fellowship Scheme, which supports research in the field of art and culture at junior, senior and post-doctoral levels, and at the Goa State Best Library and Best Librarian Award, which carries cash prizes of Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 and sits alongside this scheme in the same charter.