Lok Sabha Question No. 13 (STARRED), answered on 2024-07-22
Subject: Elderly  Artists Pension Scheme
Ministry: CULTURE
Asked by: Shri Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CULTURE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *13 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.07.2024

## ELDERLY ARTISTS PENSION SCHEME

## *13. SHRI SANJAY HARIBHAU JADHAV:

## Will the MINISTER OF CULTURE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details and the criteria/parameters for giving pension to veteran/elderly artist in the country;
- (b) the  number  of  proposals  received  by  the  Government  under  the  Elderly  Artists Pension scheme during the last five years State-wise, particularly in Maharashtra;
- (c) the  details  of  applications  received  from  Parbhani  Parliamentary  Constituency  of Maharashtra along with the action taken by the Government thereon;
- (d) the number of applications approved and the number of applications withheld during the last ten years along with the reasons therefor; and
- (e)  the details of special efforts made by the Government to help the elderly artists in earning their livelihood under the said scheme?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TOURISM (SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)

- (a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  to  (e)  of  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *13 FOR 22 nd  JULY, 2024

(a)  The Ministry of Culture administers a Scheme by the name of 'Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists' under which maximum financial assistance of Rs. 6000/- per month is provided  to  veteran  artists.  However,  the  financial  assistance  being  provided  to  the artists under the scheme is not any kind of pension in the conventional sense governed by CCS (pension) rules. Instead, it is meant as a grant in the form of financial assistance provided  for  improving  the  financial  and  socio-economic  status  of  the  old  artistes  and scholars who have contributed significantly in their active age or are still contributing in the field of arts, letters etc. but due to old age are unable to generate a steady income.

Under the Scheme, the following two types of cases/requests are covered:

- i. Existing beneficiaries getting monthly artistes pension under the 1961 Scheme of 'Financial  Assistance  to  Persons  Distinguished  in  Letters,  Arts  and  such  other walks of life who may be in indigent circumstances' as amended from time to time; and
- ii. Fresh cases of artistes, writers, etc. who are eligible for a grant/monthly financial assistance under the extant guidelines of the Scheme.

The  scheme  guidelines  provide  for  the  following  eligibility  criteria  for  consideration  of financial assistance to the applicant under the scheme:

- i. Traditional scholars who have made significant contribution to art & letters, etc. in their fields
- ii. Personal annual income of the applicant (including income of the spouse) must not exceed Rs. 72,000/-
- iii. The applicant artist should not be less than 60years of age (this doesn't applicable for the spouse of the artists)
- iv. The applicant artist should be a recipient of artists pension of at least Rs. 500/per month from the concerned State Government/UT Administration, or the artistic credentials of the applicant is verified and recommended by the concerned Zonal Cultural Centre (ZCC), Ministry of Culture.
- v. The  applicant  artist  should  not  be  getting  financial  assistance  under  any  other scheme of the Ministry of Culture.

(b)    The  number  of  proposals  received  (state-wise)  by  the  Government  under  the scheme  for  'Financial  Assistance  for  Veteran  Artists'  during  the  last  five  years  from various States of the country including the State of Maharashtra is at Annexure-I .

- (c)      Parliamentary  Constituency-wise data is not maintained  in the Ministry. However, the number of applications received from Parbhani District of the State of Maharashtra and action taken thereon during last five years is given below:
- (d)    The  number  of  applications  (year-wise)  approved  and  rejected  from  2014-15  to 2023-24 is given below:
* Meeting  of  Expert  Committee  for  2015-16,  2016-17  &  2017-18  held  in  August, 2017.

| Year    |   Proposals Received |   Proposals not found complete in the preliminary scrutiny |   Proposals found complete in the preliminary scrutiny and placed before Expert Committee |   Proposals recommend ed by Expert Committee |   Proposals not- recommend ed by Expert Committee |
|---------|----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| 2019-20 |                   05 |                                                         00 |                                                                                        05 |                                           01 |                                                04 |
| 2020-21 |                   12 |                                                         00 |                                                                                        12 |                                           08 |                                                04 |
| 2021-22 |                   42 |                                                         19 |                                                                                        23 |                                           18 |                                                05 |
| 2022-23 |                   91 |                                                         32 |                                                                                        59 |                                           17 |                                                42 |
| 2023-24 |                   96 |                                                         51 |                                                                                        45 |                                           08 |                                                37 |
| TOTAL   |                  246 |                                                        102 |                                                                                       144 |                                           52 |                                                92 |

| Year     |   Application approved |   Application rejected |
|----------|------------------------|------------------------|
| 2014-15  |                    184 |                   1434 |
| 2015-16* |                   1625 |                   1449 |
| 2018-19  |                     93 |                    211 |
| 2019-20  |                    411 |                    797 |
| 2020-21  |                   1821 |                    782 |
| 2021-22  |                   2251 |                    486 |
| 2022-23  |                   1150 |                   2052 |
| 2023-24  |                    355 |                   1513 |
| TOTAL    |                   7890 |                   8724 |

The applications were not-recommended/approved, inter-alia, owing to various reasons as mentioned below:

- (i) The applications  found  incomplete  owing  to  deficient  documents  such  as  annual income certificate, age certificate, state-share pension proof etc.
- (ii)  Not meeting the artistic credentials required as per the scheme guidelines.
- (iii)  The applications submitted without the recommendations of prescribed authority as laid down in the scheme guidelines.

(e)   While, it has been the constant endeavor of the Government to make efforts to help the veteran artists to receive financial assistance under the scheme, the following actions have been taken during the last few years to mitigate the hardships of the beneficiaries under the scheme:

- (i) The quantum of financial assistance under the scheme has been enhanced from Rs. 4000/- per month to Rs. 6000/- per month with effect from June, 2022;
- (ii) The requirement of submitting income certificate every year has now been done away with and instead it is now required to be submitted once in five years;
- (iii) Earlier, the applicant artist  applying  under  the  scheme  should  have  been mandatorily be a recipient of artists pension of at least Rs. 500/- per month from the  concerned  State  Government/UT  Administration.  This  condition  has  been relaxed and now also provides for verification and recommendation of the artistic credentials by the concerned Zonal Cultural Centre (ZCC), Ministry of Culture in case the applicant  is  not  a  recipient  of  artists  pension  from  the  State  Govt./UT Administration;
- (iv)  To  ensure  smooth  and  timely  disbursal  of  financial  assistance  to  the  selected artists, an MoU has been signed with Canara Bank on 28.06.2023.

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## Annexure-I

## Annexure referred to in Reply of Part (b) of the Starred Question No. *13 for 22.07.2024 in Lok Sabha

| Sr.   | Name of the State/UT   |   Proposals received in 2019-20 |   Proposals received in 2020-21 |   Proposals received in 2021-22 |   Proposals received in 2022-23 |   Proposals received in 2023-24 |   Total Proposals received from 2019-20 to 2023-24 |
|-------|------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| 1.    | Andhra Pradesh         |                             177 |                              52 |                             229 |                             213 |                             291 |                                                962 |
| 2.    | Assam                  |                              12 |                               3 |                               4 |                               2 |                               0 |                                                 21 |
| 3.    | Bihar                  |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                              36 |                               0 |                                                 36 |
| 4.    | Delhi                  |                               1 |                               0 |                               1 |                               0 |                               3 |                                                  5 |
| 5.    | Goa                    |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                             507 |                                                507 |
| 6.    | Gujarat                |                               1 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                                                  1 |
| 7.    | Haryana                |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               2 |                                                  2 |
| 8.    | Himachal Pradesh       |                               0 |                               4 |                               3 |                               1 |                               2 |                                                 10 |
| 9.    | Jharkhand              |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               1 |                               0 |                                                  1 |
| 10.   | Jammu & Kashmir        |                               1 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                                                  1 |
| 11.   | Karnataka              |                             344 |                             136 |                             201 |                             177 |                             250 |                                               1108 |
| 12.   | Kerala                 |                              45 |                              22 |                              28 |                              77 |                              14 |                                                186 |
| 13.   | Madhya Pradesh         |                               8 |                               3 |                               2 |                               2 |                               2 |                                                 17 |
| 14.   | Maharashtra            |                             885 |                             238 |                            1446 |                            1157 |                            1469 |                                               5195 |
| 15.   | Manipur                |                              28 |                              12 |                               0 |                               3 |                               1 |                                                 44 |
| 16.   | Nagaland               |                             859 |                               1 |                             198 |                               0 |                               0 |                                               1058 |
| 17.   | Odisha                 |                             567 |                             584 |                            2693 |                            2124 |                            1136 |                                               7104 |
| 18.   | Puducherry             |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               1 |                                                  1 |
| 19.   | Punjab                 |                               7 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               1 |                                                  8 |
| 20.   | Rajasthan              |                               2 |                               2 |                               5 |                               1 |                               1 |                                                 11 |
| 21.   | Tamil Nadu             |                              79 |                              66 |                              31 |                              23 |                              15 |                                                214 |
| 22.   | Telangana              |                             528 |                             142 |                             498 |                             859 |                             483 |                                               2510 |
| 23.   | Tripura                |                               1 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                               0 |                                                  1 |
| 24.   | UttarPradesh           |                              16 |                              68 |                               9 |                              15 |                              38 |                                                146 |
| 25.   | Uttarakhand            |                               0 |                               1 |                               0 |                               0 |                               1 |                                                  2 |
| 26.   | West Bengal            |                            2243 |                            1269 |                              54 |                              26 |                              53 |                                               3645 |
| Total | Total                  |                            5804 |                            2603 |                            5402 |                            4717 |                            4270 |                                              22796 |

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