Scheme of Financial Assistance to Indigent Artists

What is the Scheme of Financial Assistance to Indigent Artists?

Scheme of Financial Assistance to Indigent Artists is the pension-like support that the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram pays to artists who spent a working life in the performing arts and have ended it without income. The Manram is the state cultural body under the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Tamil Nadu, and it carries its present name from 1973, having begun as the Tamil Nadu Music and Drama Society.

According to the Department of Art and Culture's Policy Note, the Manram's stated activity is "to sanction financial assistance of Rs.3,000/- (Rupees three thousand) per month to the aged indigent artistes". The scheme is often referred to in Tamil as the vaRumaiyil vaadum kalaignarkalukkaana nithi udhavi; financial help for artists living in poverty.

Scale. The department reported that the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram sanctioned Rs 3,000 per month to 1,000 members under this scheme. That figure sets the practical expectation: the monthly assistance runs against a roll of around a thousand artists, so new sanctions depend on vacancies as much as on merit.

What exactly does an indigent artist receive?

The support is a package rather than a single payment, and it is worth knowing all four parts before applying:

The Chief Minister presented the 2024-25 round on 26 February 2025: Porkizhi worth Rs 1,00,000 each to 10 senior Kalaimamani awardees living in indigent circumstances, totalling Rs 10 lakh, together with Rs 25,000 each for family maintenance to the legal heirs of 20 deceased artists, totalling Rs 5 lakh. In an earlier year the department recorded Rs 74.46 lakh sanctioned to the legal heirs of 88 indigent artists.

Porkizhi is a separate award and is not the same as this scheme. It was raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 with a specific sanction of Rs 10 lakh, and it is confined to Kalaimamani awardees.

Who is eligible for the indigent artists assistance, and who is not eligible?

You can be considered if:

• You are an artist of Tamil Nadu in one of the fields the Manram works across, eyal (literature), isai (music), natakam (drama), natiyam (dance), folk arts, and related performing arts.
• You are aged. The department's own wording is "aged indigent artistes", and the scheme is designed for artists past working age.
• You are living in indigent circumstances, that is without a stable income from your art or from any other source.
• You are a resident of Tamil Nadu.
• You hold a bank account in your own name into which the monthly amount can be credited.

You cannot claim this assistance if:

• You are a working artist with a regular income from performances, teaching or a salaried post. The scheme is a destitution benefit, not a professional grant, and a well-earning artist is not eligible.
• You are a young artist looking for career support. That is a different route entirely. The Manram gives Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 grants to budding artists in vocal music, Bharatanatyam and instrumental music to perform through Voluntary Cultural Organisations, and 1,993 young artistes have benefited so far. The District Art Awards, from Kalai Ilamani at Rs 4,000 to Kalai Mudhumani at Rs 20,000, are the other route for artists earlier in a career.
• You are a Kalaimamani awardee applying for a large one-time payment. Ask instead about Porkizhi, which pays Rs 1,00,000 to senior Kalaimamani awardees living in indigent circumstances.
• You are applying on behalf of a living artist without their consent, or you are the heir of a deceased artist. Heirs should apply for the Rs 25,000 one-time family maintenance grant, not for the monthly assistance, which stops on death.
• You live outside Tamil Nadu.

The department does not publish a fixed rupee income ceiling for this scheme. The test is stated qualitatively — aged and in indigent circumstances, and it is assessed on the income certificate together with the supporting evidence.

How to apply for financial assistance to indigent artists

1. Assemble proof that you are an artist. Programme notices, press cuttings, photographs, recordings, certificates from art institutions, and any awards received are the evidence that matters most. An artist who has performed for forty years and kept nothing should ask a Voluntary Cultural Organisation, a District Art Society or a fellow artist of standing to certify the career in writing.
2. Obtain an artist identification card if you do not hold one. The Department of Art and Culture issues identification cards to artists to help them obtain financial assistance from the Government, to get priority in performing at government cultural programmes and to avail travel concessions. 86,050 identification cards have been issued so far.
3. Get an income certificate from the Tahsildar or the Village Administrative Officer establishing your present circumstances, together with age proof.
4. Open or confirm a bank account in your own name and seed it with Aadhaar, since the monthly assistance is credited to that account.
5. Write the application to the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, Chennai, through the Department of Art and Culture, setting out your art form, your career, your present circumstances and your bank details, and attach every document listed above.
6. Route it through your district, using the District Art Society at the collectorate or the Regional Cultural Centre serving your district, and ask for a recommendation. The Regional Cultural Centres operate at Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thanjavur, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore.
7. Keep the acknowledgement and follow up. Because the roll has stood at about 1,000 artists, sanction of a new case usually waits on a vacancy.

What documents are required?

How to check the status of your application

1. Follow up with the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram in Chennai, which is the sanctioning body for this scheme.
2. Ask the District Art Society at your collectorate, headed by the District Collector, which handles artist matters at district level and can trace a recommendation it forwarded.
3. Use the contact page at artandculture.tn.gov.in for the Department of Art and Culture, which supervises the Manram.
4. Watch the bank passbook once sanctioned, since the assistance is credited monthly.

Why applications for indigent artist assistance fail

• No documentary evidence of an artistic career. This is the single commonest problem. Decades of performance leave no paper trail unless someone kept it, so build the file with certifications from art bodies rather than relying on memory.
• No income certificate, or one that shows a settled income. The scheme turns on indigence.
• Waiting list. With about 1,000 artists on the roll, a fully valid application may simply be awaiting a vacancy rather than being rejected. Follow up rather than reapply.
• Bank account problems. An account not in the artist's own name, dormant, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so the monthly credit fails.
• Wrong scheme. Heirs of a deceased artist should ask for the Rs 25,000 family maintenance grant, Kalaimamani awardees for Porkizhi, and young artists for the Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 encouragement grants.

Where to ask and where to complain

• District level: the District Art Society at your district collectorate, chaired by the District Collector, and the Regional Cultural Centre serving your district.
• State level: the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, Chennai, and the Department of Art and Culture through the contact page at artandculture.tn.gov.in.

No fee is charged for this application, and no intermediary can secure a sanction. The Manram's decisions are taken in Chennai on the strength of the file forwarded from the district.