My open letter to the Prime Minister of India
9 July 2020: At a time when West Bengal is gearing up for stricter lockdown from 5 pm today and yet many people are trying to find a job to survive. This includes many performers and artistes who are not so famous.
I have and am still receiving a number of phone calls and feelers regarding the thousands of folk artistes, craftsmen and artisans who were facing immense hardship to eke out a living. These artisans earn their livelihood by promoting Indian culture and heritage. During normal times these poor unsung torch-bearers of Indian culture barely manage to make ends meet.
In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, they had to endure a lot of hardship and were in desperate need to support their families and themselves and keep their traditional crafts and skills alive.
Many of us were very worried about their situation because already many traditional folk arts of India are slowly fading away as the poor artisans are unable to keep up with the times pursuing their traditional craftsmanship or occupation. This, I was told, threatened to wipe out vast swathes of India’s cultural capital and heritage built over thousands of years.
As our organisation Prabha Khaitan Foundation, with its associates, regularly engages and works with the folk artists across India, I was very worried about their well being. Also, the scale of the impact was big that only a concerted government effort could ameliorate their situation. So, finding no proper solution, I decided to write an open letter to the Prime Minister of India, with a copy to the Cultural Minister, highlighting the plight of the artisans and craftsmen and requesting for a scheme to bring them all under one protective umbrella.
The Prime Minister’s Office was very prompt in acknowledging my letter and also acted upon it by forwarding it to the concerned.
Few days later I got a letter a letter from Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, for Culture and Tourism, Government of India, who assured me that his ministry had written to all the Zonal Cultural Centres of India to empanel the names of all artisans – even those who were earlier not empanelled for Government support.
I am not sure what the support to these artisans and craftsmen would be. I also wrote to all the directors of the Zonal Cultural Centres as well. I am confident that the Government would take positive steps to help them in these trying times.
I must thank Mr Maneesh Tripathi and Ms Shazia Ilmi for extending their support and standing with me in articulating the cause of the folk artistes.
ess bee