Pension Scheme - Folk Artist

What is the folk artist pension in Tamil Nadu?

Pension Scheme - Folk Artist is a monthly assistance run by the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Tamil Nadu, through the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram and the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board. The scheme pays a registered folk artiste a monthly pension once age and infirmity have ended the ability to earn from performance.

Two published figures are relevant and it is worth setting both out honestly rather than picking one:

• The Tamil Nadu government decided to provide 1,000 senior artists with a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 each through the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram.
• The department separately runs an assistance to indigent artists described as a Rs 3,000 monthly stipend for artists with a lifetime of service contributions.

These are consistent in amount and appear to be the same instrument described under two labels. What matters for an applicant is that the pension is not automatic, is given against a sanctioned number of pensions, and requires the artiste to be on the department's records.

The problem the scheme addresses is a real and specific one. Tamil Nadu's folk arts, therukoothu, villupattu, karagattam, oyilattam, poikkal kudhirai, parai, thappattam, silambattam, nadaswaram and thavil ensembles, bommalattam puppetry, are performed by people who are paid per engagement, in cash, with no employer, no provident fund and no contract. A folk artiste who performed at temple festivals for forty years arrives at seventy with an unmatched skill, no savings and no pension. Attendance at village festivals has fallen; cinema and recorded music have taken the engagements. The state's response has been to build a welfare board around these artistes and to pay a pension to the oldest of them.

The Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board is the machinery. It was created to safeguard folk arts and to give folk artistes social security, and 50,882 folk artistes have registered with it. Registration is the practical gateway to everything else.

Who is eligible, and who is not eligible?

An artiste can apply if:

• The applicant is a folk artiste or performing artiste practising in Tamil Nadu.
• The applicant is registered with the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, with membership properly renewed.
• The applicant is aged and can no longer earn a living from performance.
• The applicant has a documented career in the art form; years of practice, troupe membership, performances.
• The applicant is a resident of Tamil Nadu.
• The applicant has no adequate means of support, where the pension is claimed as assistance to an indigent artist.

An artiste is not eligible if:

• The applicant is not registered with the Folk Artistes Welfare Board and has no record with the department. An unregistered artiste is not eligible for the board's benefits, and no amount of documented performance history substitutes for membership.
• Membership has lapsed. The Board's own scheme conditions refer to a member "who has renewed membership properly", and a lapsed membership is a common and avoidable reason a claim fails.
• The applicant is still earning regularly from performance or other work and is not in need.
• The applicant is not resident in Tamil Nadu.
• The applicant is an organiser, sponsor or patron rather than a practising artiste.
• The applicant already draws another government pension, in which case the position should be checked before applying, the state does not normally pay two pensions to one person.

What documents are required?

Carry originals with one self-attested photocopy set.

How to apply for the folk artist pension

1. Register with the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board first, if you have not already. The Board asks for proof of residence, age and family members. The ration card or Aadhaar card — together with evidence that you practise a folk art form. Do this while you are working. Every welfare and pension benefit downstream depends on it, and registration cannot be backdated.
2. Renew the membership if it has lapsed, and keep the renewal receipt. The Board's benefit conditions refer to members who have renewed properly.
3. Assemble the evidence of your career; programme notices, photographs from temple and village festivals, press clippings, troupe records, certificates from competitions, letters from sabhas: arranged chronologically.
4. Obtain the income or destitution certificate from the Tahsildar where the claim is made on the ground of being indigent.
5. Approach the Assistant Director of the Regional Cultural Centre for your district, or the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram office in Chennai, and collect the application form for the pension or the assistance to indigent artists.
6. Fill the form completely; art form practised, years of practice, gurus and troupe, current age, current means, and the Welfare Board membership number.
7. Attach self-attested copies of the membership card, age proof, Aadhaar, ration card, evidence file, income certificate where applicable, bank passbook and photographs.
8. Submit the application at the Regional Cultural Centre or to the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, 31, "Ponni", P.S. Kumarasamy Raja Salai, Raja Annamalai Puram, Chennai 600 028, and take an acknowledgement.
9. Follow up on the sanction and, once approved, check the bank account for the monthly credit.

How is the selection made?

The pension is sanctioned against a fixed number. The announcement covered 1,000 senior artists. That means selection, not entitlement. The department weighs age, the length and quality of service to the art form, whether the artiste is genuinely without means, and the need to cover artistes across districts and across art forms rather than concentrating pensions in a few well-known troupes.

An artiste not selected in one round is not barred from applying again. The most useful thing an unsuccessful applicant can do is strengthen the evidence file and ensure the Welfare Board membership is current and correctly recorded.

How do you check the status of an application?

There is no online tracking system. The route is:

1. Keep the acknowledgement issued at submission.
2. Contact the Assistant Director of the Regional Cultural Centre for your district with the reference.
3. Contact the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram office in Chennai where the Regional Cultural Centre cannot say where the file stands.
4. Once sanctioned, check the bank passbook for the monthly credit and keep the sanction reference.
5. Escalate to the Department of Art and Culture through artandculture.tn.gov.in.

Why do applications fail, and how are they fixed?

• No Welfare Board registration. This is the commonest and most consequential failure. Register now, whatever your age.
• Lapsed membership. Renew and keep receipts.
• No evidence of a career. A form with no attachments cannot be assessed. Assemble the notices and photographs.
• Name mismatch between the Board record, Aadhaar, ration card and bank account. Correct the records before applying.
• Bank account not in the artiste's own name or not Aadhaar-seeded, which stops the credit after sanction.
• Already drawing another government pension. Check the position and choose the head that pays more.
• Not selected against the sanctioned number rather than found ineligible. Ask which of the two happened, because the next step differs.

Where can an artiste raise a grievance?

• The Assistant Director, Regional Cultural Centre for the district.
• The Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, 31, "Ponni", P.S. Kumarasamy Raja Salai, Raja Annamalai Puram, Chennai 600 028.
• The Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, under the Department of Art and Culture, for membership and welfare benefit questions.
• The Department of Art and Culture, Government of Tamil Nadu, through artandculture.tn.gov.in.
• The District Collector's weekly grievance day for a file pending an unreasonable time.

No fee is payable for registration or for a pension application, and no agent can secure a sanction.

What else does the Folk Artistes Welfare Board give registered members?

The pattern is unmistakable. Every one of these benefits depends on being on the Board's register before the event. A folk artiste in their thirties who registers today is protecting their marriage assistance, their family's death benefit and their own old age pension in one visit. An artiste who first approaches the Board at seventy has already lost most of it.