Financial Assistance to Helpless Artists and their Dependents

What is the Financial Assistance to Helpless Artists scheme?

Financial Assistance to Helpless Artists is a scheme of the Commissioner of Youth Services and Cultural Activities, under Gujarat's Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department. On the Commissionerate's own list of cultural branch schemes it appears in Gujarati as Ni:sahay kalakaro tema j temna aashrito ne aarthik sahay; financial assistance to helpless artists and their dependents.

The scheme answers a specific and old problem. Gujarat's folk and stage arts: bhavai, lok-dayro, folk music, classical music and dance, theatre; have long been carried by performers who worked outside salaried employment and reached old age with no pension and no savings. The state's response is a modest, targeted payment to artists who gave notable service to the arts, are over 60, are physically infirm and are economically destitute, and to the dependents of such artists.

How much is paid?

According to the Commissioner of Youth Services and Cultural Activities, the assistance is paid in six fixed slabs:

• Rs 1,200
• Rs 1,800
• Rs 2,400
• Rs 3,000
• Rs 3,600
• Rs 4,800

The Commissionerate's page describes this as annual (varshik) financial assistance, while some scheme aggregators describe it as monthly. Because the two descriptions differ, ask the Commissionerate to confirm the periodicity before you plan around it, the amounts themselves are published and are not in dispute. Which slab a particular artist is placed in is a decision of the department based on the case.

Who is eligible, and who is not eligible?

An artist qualifies if all four conditions are met:

• The artist has made a notable (gananapatra) contribution in the field of art. This is the substance of the claim and has to be evidenced.
• The artist is over 60 years of age.
• The artist is physically infirm or incapacitated.
• The artist is economically helpless: destitute rather than merely modest in means.

A dependent qualifies where the artist who made the contribution is no longer able to support the family, and the dependency can be shown.

A person is not eligible if:

• The applicant is under 60, unless applying as a dependent.
• The applicant cannot show artistic work. A general claim of interest in the arts is not enough; the scheme is a recognition of service already given.
• The applicant has an adequate income or pension. The scheme exists for destitution, and an artist in comfortable circumstances is not the intended beneficiary.
• The applicant is not a resident of Gujarat, since this is a state cultural scheme run through the Commissionerate and its district offices.

What documents are required?

On the evidence of artistic work, be generous rather than sparing. Old photographs of performances, handbills, letters from a bhavai mandali or an akademi, cassette or CD covers, radio and television credits and newspaper mentions all count. Many older folk artists have no formal certificates at all, and a well-organised bundle of this kind of material is what carries a file.

How to apply for assistance as a helpless artist

1. Obtain the prescribed form. The Commissionerate states for its artist schemes that the application form is placed on the Youth Services and Cultural Activities website; the form is also available at the Commissionerate and at district youth services offices.
2. Assemble proof of your work in the arts — the field you worked in, the years, the troupes or institutions you performed with, and any documentary evidence you hold.
3. Get age proof and income or destitution proof, and a medical certificate if you are claiming on the ground of physical infirmity.
4. Fill the form and attach the evidence, Aadhaar and a bank passbook copy.
5. Submit the application to the Commissioner of Youth Services and Cultural Activities, Block 11, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Sector 10-B, Gandhinagar 382010, or through the district youth services office, and take a dated acknowledgement.
6. Follow up with the cultural branch (sanskriti shakha), which handles this scheme, quoting the date and reference of your submission.

How do you check the status of an application?

Contact the cultural branch of the Commissionerate on 079-23254095, or write to commi-synca@gujarat.gov.in, quoting the date on which you submitted and the acknowledgement reference. Where the application went through a district youth services office, ask there first, the file travels from the district to Gandhinagar, and the district office can tell you when it was forwarded.

Why are applications rejected, and how do you fix them?

• No documentary evidence of artistic work. Rebuild the record: photographs, handbills, letters from troupes or akademis, press mentions, recordings.
• Age below 60. The condition is explicit. A younger artist in distress should look at other cultural branch support instead; assistance to bahurupi and nat-bajaniya artists, or to bhavai and professional theatre troupes.
• No proof of economic need. Attach an income certificate or equivalent.
• Incomplete or unsigned form. Use the current prescribed form and fill every column, including the bank details.
• Bank account not in the applicant's name. Payment goes to the beneficiary, so a relative's account will hold the file up.

What related help exists for Gujarat's artists?

The same cultural branch of the Commissionerate runs several other measures that an artist or family may qualify for:

• Assistance to bahurupi, nat-bajaniya and bhavai communities: Rs 3,000 to a bahurupi artist, Rs 2,100 to a nat-bajaniya artist, and Rs 20,000 to a bhavai mandali. Anyone who can produce proof of working as such an artist may apply on the prescribed form; the nat-bajaniya artist must be a native of Gujarat, and the bhavai mandali must have been active for five years.
• Assistance to professional theatre companies, for touring companies that have been working at least five years, with the benefit available once in five years and five companies assisted a year.
• SCSP training camps for Turi Barot folk artists, with 20 to 50 trainees per camp, selected by a committee of officers and experts.
• Kala Mahakumbh, the state competition with prizes at district, region and state level, including a dedicated 60-plus senior citizen age group.

Where do you complain or ask for help?

Write to the Commissioner, Youth Services and Cultural Activities, Gujarat State, Block 11, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Sector 10-B, Gandhinagar 382010, telephone 079-23254095, email commi-synca@gujarat.gov.in. The parent department is the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, Gandhinagar, whose website is sycd.gujarat.gov.in.