Bengal govt to organise ‘Lok Utsav’ to promote folk artists

The state government has decided to organise Lok Sanskriti Utsav for promoting folk artists.

If things go as planned, folk artists performing at the utsav would be paid more than their usual allowance of Rs 1,000 per performance.

The festival will be organised for three days and is likely to start from 24 December. Two venues have been selected for holding the festival, namely Princep Ghat and Lal Dighi, which is located near Writers’ Buildings.

Under the Lok Prasar scheme, folk artists are enrolled by the government, following which they perform at government programmes for publicising development works.

Folk artists receive a retainership fee of Rs 1,000, and in addition an opportunity for four performances, with Rs 1,000 paid for each. This means there is provision for a folk artist to receive at least Rs 5,000 a month.

Some popular folk dances of Bengal are Chhau, Natua, Raibeshi, Brita, Gambhira, Lathi, Santhal and Tusu, and there are around 42,000 enrolled folk artists.