Assistance for Delivery of a Child or the Miscarriage of Pregnancy or the Termination of Pregnancy

What is the Assistance for Delivery of a Child or Miscarriage or Termination of Pregnancy?

Assistance for Delivery of a Child or the Miscarriage of Pregnancy or the Termination of Pregnancy is a welfare benefit run by the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board under the Art and Culture Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. The board pays a registered woman folk artiste a fixed sum towards hospital and recovery costs when she gives birth, miscarries, or undergoes a termination of pregnancy.

The benefit is available to women members two times only.

The purpose is specific to the trade. A folk performer, a therukoothu actress, an oyilattam or karagattam dancer, a villupattu narrator, a parai player: earns per performance. There is no maternity leave, no employer, no paid absence. A pregnancy removes her from the performance circuit for months, exactly when household expenses rise. A miscarriage or a termination costs her the same lost work with none of the outcome. The board's payment does not replace a salary, but it covers hospital expenses at the moment the household has no performance income at all.

Scale. According to the Art and Culture Department's 2025-26 policy note, 21 folk artistes received a total of Rs 1.26 lakh under the delivery of child head in the reported year. Across all six of the board's welfare heads, Rs 236.86 lakh was sanctioned to 9,833 eligible folk artistes.

About the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board

The Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board was constituted in 2007 to promote folk arts among the public, support folk artistes financially, and preserve traditional art forms for future generations. The Government of Tamil Nadu has identified and enlisted 99 folk art forms, and 57,308 artistes have registered as members.

What the board pays across all heads:

Sanction pattern in the reported year:

The very low count under the delivery head to 21 claims against 57,308 registered artistes; is worth naming plainly. It is not evidence that few women members give birth. It is evidence that the benefit is under-claimed, mostly because women artistes do not know it exists, or let their membership lapse and discover it only when they need it.

Who can claim, and who is not eligible

A woman folk artiste can claim if:

• She is a registered member of the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board and holds the membership identity card.
• Her membership has been properly renewed. Renewal falls due every two years and costs Rs 10. A lapsed membership is the single most common reason a claim fails.
• She has given birth, miscarried, or undergone a termination of pregnancy, evidenced by a hospital record.
• She has not already claimed twice. The benefit is limited to two occasions.

Board membership itself is open to a folk artiste who:

• Has completed 18 years but not yet 60 years of age.
• Is involved in performing or training in folk art forms recognised under the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Act 1982, or among the forms listed in Tamizhaga Naattar Nigazhthu Kalaigal – Kalangiyam.

A claim cannot be made if:

• The artiste is not a registered member. There is no route to this benefit from outside the board, and an unregistered folk artiste is not eligible.
• The membership has lapsed and has not been renewed.
• The artiste has already drawn the benefit twice.
• The claimant is a male member. The delivery, miscarriage and termination heads are for women members only. Male members claim under the education, marriage, spectacles and death heads.
• The artiste is outside the 18 to 60 age band for membership and was never enrolled.

How to apply for the delivery or miscarriage assistance

1. Confirm your membership is current. Check the identity card and, if renewal is due, pay the Rs 10 renewal fee at your Regional Art and Cultural Centre before filing the claim. A duplicate card, if lost, costs Rs 20.
2. Collect the hospital record. The discharge summary or medical certificate recording the delivery, miscarriage or termination and its date. For a delivery, also obtain the child's birth certificate where it has been issued.
3. Obtain the prescribed application form from the Regional Art and Cultural Centre in your district during office hours. The form is a printed hard copy in the board's standard format.
4. Fill in every mandatory field and attach copies of the membership card, hospital record, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
5. Submit the completed application to the Assistant Director or Deputy Director at the Regional Art and Cultural Centre. Residents of Chennai district submit at the Directorate of Art and Culture.
6. Collect the acknowledgement and follow up at the same office if the amount has not been credited.
7. Keep the record for the second claim. Because the benefit is limited to two occasions, keep a copy of each sanctioned claim.

How to register as a member of the board

Most women who miss this benefit miss it because they were never registered. Registration is inexpensive and takes one visit.

1. Go to the Regional Art and Cultural Centre for your district, or the Directorate of Art and Culture if you live in Chennai district.
2. Carry proof of residence, age and family details — ration card or Aadhaar card.
3. Obtain a Village Administrative Officer's certificate verifying that you are a practising folk artiste. This is the document that establishes artiste status and is the one applicants most often arrive without.
4. Carry three passport-size photographs and photographs of your performances.
5. Pay the registration fee of Rs 100 and collect the membership identity card.
6. Renew every two years for Rs 10. Set a reminder, a lapsed membership disqualifies every claim, including this one.

What else a registered woman folk artiste can claim

• Annual education assistance for two children, ranging from Rs 1,000 for a girl child studying in Class 10 up to Rs 8,000 for higher courses including hostel facility, for a son or daughter.
• Marriage assistance of Rs 5,000 for the member herself or for a son or daughter, twice only.
• Assistance of Rs 1,500 for the purchase of spectacles, once in three years. This is the board's second most-claimed benefit, drawn by 3,939 artistes for Rs 25.45 lakh.
• Natural death and funeral expenses of Rs 25,000, paid to the legal heirs to 850 claims worth Rs 130.09 lakh in the reported year.
• Accidental death assistance of Rs 1,00,000, the board's largest single payment.

The Art and Culture Department also runs the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, established in 1955 as the Tamil Nadu Sangeetha Nataka Sangam, and separate welfare provision for other categories of artistes. A performer registered under the folk artistes board should check whether her art form is covered there as well.

Why claims fail

• Membership lapsed. Renewal is due every two years and costs Rs 10; a lapsed card invalidates the claim.
• No Village Administrative Officer's certificate at the registration stage, so the artiste was never enrolled in the first place.
• No hospital record establishing the delivery, miscarriage or termination.
• Third claim. Two is the ceiling, and a third application is returned.
• Bank account details wrong or not in the member's own name, which stops the transfer.
• Filed at the wrong office. The claim belongs at the Regional Art and Cultural Centre for the district where the member is registered.

Help and grievance

• Regional Art and Cultural Centre in your district. The office that registers members, renews membership and receives every welfare claim.
• Directorate of Art and Culture, Chennai, for Chennai district applicants and for escalation.
• Portal: artandculture.tn.gov.in, where the board's benefits, membership terms and office details are published.

Registration costs Rs 100 and renewal Rs 10. No other payment is due, and no agent is required to file a welfare claim.

How to check your application status

There is no online tracking portal for this welfare claim. The application is filed on paper at the Regional Art and Cultural Centre (or the Directorate of Art and Culture for Chennai district), and status has to be checked the same offline way.

1. Keep the acknowledgement slip from submission. The Regional Art and Cultural Centre issues this when the completed application is handed in. It is the only receipt proving the claim was filed, and the office will ask for it, or for the date of submission, when you follow up.
2. Wait a reasonable processing period before following up. Since the board sanctions payments periodically as funds are released rather than instantly, a claim filed in one month is not necessarily rejected if it has not been credited within a few weeks.
3. Visit or call the same Regional Art and Cultural Centre where the claim was filed. Status on a welfare claim is held locally at the office that received it, not centrally, so the office of submission is also the office that can tell you whether it has been forwarded, sanctioned, or is pending a missing document.
4. Check your bank account for the credited amount. Since the Rs 6,000 or Rs 3,000 assistance is paid into the member's own bank account, a credit matching the amount is the clearest sign the claim has been sanctioned.
5. If there is no update after following up at the district office, escalate to the Directorate of Art and Culture, Chennai. This is the same office that Chennai district applicants use to file directly, and it also handles escalation from other districts.
6. Use the department portal, artandculture.tn.gov.in, for the board's published contact details if you have moved or are unsure which Regional Art and Cultural Centre now covers your address.

Because processing is manual and paper-based, delays are more often a sign that a document is missing (most commonly proof that membership is currently renewed) than a sign of rejection. Confirming the acknowledgement and asking the same office directly resolves this faster than waiting.