Scheme of Awarding Porkizhi to the Indigent Kalaimamani Awardee Artists

What is the Porkizhi award?

Porkizhi, literally a purse of gold, is a one-time cash award given by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram under the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Tamil Nadu, to senior Kalaimamani awardee artists who are presently living in indigent circumstances.

The scheme exists to answer a specific and uncomfortable problem. Tamil Nadu's highest state art honour, the Kalaimamani award, has been conferred on 1,924 artistes so far. Many were leading performers of drama, folk arts, classical music, dance and cinema in their working years but had no pension, no savings and no institutional employer. Porkizhi is the state's way of returning to those artists in old age with a substantial one-time payment.

Current value: Rs 1,00,000 per artist. The Department of Art and Culture's Policy Note for 2025-26 records that Porkizhi cash awards worth Rs 1,00,000 each were presented to 10 senior Kalaimamani awardees presently living in indigent circumstances, for a total of Rs 10 lakh. Older descriptions of the scheme quote a much smaller purse of around Rs 15,000; the amount has since been raised substantially, and the current Policy Note figure is the one to rely on.

Who is eligible for Porkizhi, and who is excluded?

An artist can be considered if:

• The artist has already been conferred the Kalaimamani award by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram. This is not one criterion among several, it is the gateway.
• The artist is senior. The scheme is described as being for senior Kalaimamani awardees.
• The artist is presently living in indigent circumstances, that is without an adequate income or means of support.
• The artist is a resident of Tamil Nadu.

An artist cannot apply if:

• The artist has never received the Kalaimamani award. However distinguished the career, an artist without the Kalaimamani is not eligible for Porkizhi and should look instead at the district-level awards or the monthly assistance for indigent artistes.
• The artist is in comfortable circumstances. Porkizhi is means-linked in substance even though it is called an award.
• The application is on behalf of a deceased artist. The family of a deceased renowned artist is covered by a different scheme, the one-time family maintenance grant of Rs 25,000, which has been given to 496 bereaved families so far and was recently sanctioned to the legal heirs of 20 deceased artistes.

How to apply for Porkizhi

Porkizhi does not have a year-round online form. The route is institutional, and it is usually a family member, a fellow artist or an art organisation that starts it.

1. Establish the Kalaimamani record. Locate the Kalaimamani award certificate and the year of conferment. The Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram maintains the list of awardees.
2. Prepare proof of present circumstances. An income certificate from the Tahsildar, or a written statement of the artist's present condition supported by the District Art Society, is what the department works from.
3. Approach the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram through the Department of Art and Culture, Chennai, with a written representation setting out the artist's name, Kalaimamani year, art form, age, present circumstances and bank details. The Regional Cultural Centre for the artist's zone; Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thanjavur, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli or Coimbatore; can forward the case.
4. Alternatively route it through the District Art Society headed by the District Collector, which already handles the district art awards and knows the artists in its district.
5. Follow up on the sanction. Porkizhi is presented at a government function; in the year covered by the current Policy Note the awards were handed over at the Secretariat.

What documents are required?

What else the Manram gives artists in difficulty

Porkizhi is one of several supports the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram runs, and an artist or family exploring options should know all of them:

• Financial assistance to indigent artistes: Rs 3,000 per month. This is the recurring support, sanctioned to aged artistes who rendered service in the field of art and culture during their lifetime and now live in indigent circumstances. An artist who does not hold the Kalaimamani can still be considered here.
• Family maintenance grant — Rs 25,000, one time, to the families of deceased renowned artistes. The grant was raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, and 496 bereaved families have received it.
• Grants for the production of new dramas and dance-dramas: Rs 1.50 lakh each, for artists producing and staging new Tamil plays and dance-dramas.
• Grants to folk artistes and troupes, Rs 10,000 each to 500 folk artistes and troupes for buying musical instruments and costumes.
• Grants for the publication of books on rare arts, with financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each sanctioned to five authors in the year reported.
• Travel concession in trains and government buses for drama artistes and art troupes performing outstation.

Who decides a Porkizhi award?

Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram is the body that sanctions Porkizhi, and an artist's representation is addressed to it rather than to a district office. The Manram was set up in 1955 as the Tamil Nadu Sangeet Nataka Sangam and was renamed Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram in 1973. Its stated purpose is to carry out the objectives of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi at the state level and to foster traditional Tamil arts, which is why both the Kalaimamani honour and the relief measures for Kalaimamani holders sit with the same institution.

That single point of custody matters in practice. Because the Manram maintains the Kalaimamani record itself; 1,924 artistes have been honoured so far, across literature (114), music (573), dance (183), theatre (268), cinema (460) and other disciplines, an applicant does not have to prove the award from scratch if the certificate has been lost. The office can verify the year and category from its own lists, and the department publishes awardee lists for several years on artandculture.tn.gov.in. Send the representation with whatever proof you have and ask the office to check the record.

Why a Porkizhi case may not succeed

• No Kalaimamani award. This is the most frequent reason a representation fails, and it cannot be cured by any amount of supporting material.
• Circumstances not documented. A bare statement that the artist is poor is weaker than an income certificate from the Tahsildar.
• Limited annual numbers. Only a small number of Porkizhi awards are sanctioned in a year, so a strong case may still wait for a later round.
• Bank details missing or inactive, which stalls the transfer even after sanction.

Where to ask

• State level: Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, Department of Art and Culture, Government of Tamil Nadu. Contact details are on artandculture.tn.gov.in.
• Regional level: the Regional Cultural Centre for your zone.
• District level: the District Art Society at your District Collectorate.

No fee is payable for a Porkizhi representation and no agent can obtain the award. The Kalaimamani record and the artist's present circumstances are what the department acts on.

How to check your application status

Porkizhi has no online tracking dashboard and no application number is issued the way a portal-based scheme would issue one, so status has to be followed up in person or by letter, through whichever channel first carried the representation.

1. Go back to whoever forwarded the case. If a Regional Cultural Centre or the District Art Society sent the representation to the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram on the artist's behalf, that office is the first point of follow-up. It will usually know whether the file has moved to the Department of Art and Culture or is still pending at its own end.
2. Write or call the Manram directly through the Department of Art and Culture in Chennai, quoting the artist's name, the Kalaimamani year, and the approximate date the representation was sent. Contact details are listed on artandculture.tn.gov.in. Since Porkizhi has no dedicated helpline, a written follow-up referencing the earlier letter gets a more useful reply than a general phone enquiry.
3. Check the annual Policy Note. The Department of Art and Culture's yearly Policy Note lists the Porkizhi awardees for that year along with the total amount disbursed. If an artist's case has been sanctioned, it should surface in the Policy Note for that financial year, and this is a way to confirm a sanction independently of what the office tells you on the phone.
4. Watch for the award function. Porkizhi is handed over at a government function rather than credited quietly, so a call inviting the artist (or informing the family) to attend such an event at the Secretariat or a Department function is itself a sign that the case has been sanctioned.
5. Expect no fixed timeline. Because awards are sanctioned as and when the Manram identifies eligible artists rather than against a published cycle, there is no standard number of days after which a decision is guaranteed. A case that has been correctly filed with a Kalaimamani certificate and an income certificate can still take a considerable time to come up for sanction, and repeated but polite follow-up through the District Art Society or Regional Cultural Centre is the only real lever an applicant has.

Since Porkizhi is unrelated to any centralised e-governance service tracking number, do not expect an SMS or portal update; the paper trail with the Manram and the annual Policy Note remain the two reliable ways to confirm where a case stands.