JOIN USAn announcement to this effect was made by Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja here at a function organised to conferred prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Akademi Awards for 2010.
“We have received requests for the creation of an Artistes Welfare Fund. It is being worked upon and the ministry is holding stakeholder consultations and will soon give a final shape to the proposal,” she said. The ministry, however, is already implementing a scheme for providing financial aid to artistes in indigent circumstances, which has been recently modified to provide a higher level of assistance to artistes in dire financial straits, she added.
The minister said there was a proposal to set up a museum of musical instruments in every cultural zones like the one run by the Sangeet Natak Akademi here. “India is so vast and blessed with a repertoire of music that is so broad and deep, I doubt that just one such museum would be sufficient.”