Scheme for Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships to Outstanding Persons in the Fields of Culture

What is the Scheme for Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships in the Fields of Culture?

The Scheme for Award of Senior/Junior Fellowships to Outstanding Persons in the Fields of Culture is a Ministry of Culture scheme that supports individual artists, performers and scholars to pursue a defined project in their field. It is administered with the help of the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT).

According to the Ministry of Culture, the scheme awards fellowships to outstanding persons across a range of cultural fields. The performing arts (music, dance, theatre), the literary arts, the plastic and visual arts, and other notified areas of culture, so they can devote time to advanced work, research or creative output.

The scheme provides up to about 400 fellowships a year, divided between two categories by age and standing:

• Senior fellowships, for persons above 40 years, at Rs 20,000 per month.
• Junior fellowships, for persons aged 25 to 40 years, at Rs 10,000 per month.

The fellowship is normally tenable for a period of up to two years.

Who is eligible for the culture fellowship?

You can apply if:

• You work in one of the fields of culture listed under the scheme (performing, literary, plastic, visual and allied arts).
• You meet the age band for the category — 25 to 40 years for a junior fellowship, above 40 years for a senior fellowship.
• You hold at least the minimum educational qualification, which is graduation for the listed fields (with relaxations recognised in the guidelines for certain traditional art forms where formal degrees are not the norm).
• You have a clear project you wish to carry out during the fellowship.

You cannot apply / are not eligible if:

• You are a senior-fellowship applicant who already draws a pension from the Ministry of Culture under the scheme for financial assistance to artists in indigent circumstances.
• You are below the minimum age for either category.
• You do not have a genuine, defined cultural project. The fellowship funds work, not a general grant.

Selection is made by expert committees on the basis of the applicant's standing, past work and the merit of the proposed project. Because the number of fellowships is capped, the award is competitive.

How much does the fellowship pay?

• Senior fellowship: Rs 20,000 per month.
• Junior fellowship: Rs 10,000 per month.

The amount is paid for the duration of the fellowship, up to two years, and is released against the fellow's progress. In addition, a one-time publication grant of up to Rs 20,000 (or 50% of the cost of publication, whichever is less) may be given for publishing a selected project document, but only to a small share of the awardees.

How to apply for the culture fellowship

Applications for the fellowship are made online during the window notified each cycle by the Ministry of Culture / CCRT. The route is:

1. Watch for the fellowship notification on the Ministry of Culture site (indiaculture.gov.in) and the CCRT portal (ccrtindia.gov.in), which opens the online application for the cycle.
2. Register and fill the online form, choosing the correct field of culture and the category; junior or senior, that matches your age.
3. Attach your detailed project proposal, bio-data, proof of age, educational qualification and bank details.
4. Submit the application online within the deadline and keep the acknowledgement.
5. If shortlisted, respond to any request from the expert committee and, on award, accept the fellowship terms including the reporting requirement.

What documents are required?

Obligations during the fellowship

A fellow must submit a six-monthly progress report on the project. The Ministry uses these reports to release further instalments; if a report is not received on time, further payment can be withheld until the position is regularised. At the end of the fellowship the fellow is expected to submit the completed work, which may in selected cases qualify for the publication grant.

Help and where to go

Queries on the fellowship are handled by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) and the Ministry of Culture, through the details on ccrtindia.gov.in and indiaculture.gov.in. Because the scheme runs in annual cycles, applicants should rely on the current official notification for the exact fields, dates and online form.

This is a niche, competitive fellowship for practising artists and cultural scholars. For a general reader it sits within the wider set of Ministry of Culture scholarship and fellowship schemes rather than being a broad public benefit.