Bengal govt promotes 2 lakh folk talents, says CM on Int'l Dance Day

Kolkata: With her government saving many dance forms in the state from getting extinct through Lok Prasar Prakalpa, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Today is International Dance Day. The #Bengal Govt promotes two lakh talented folk artistes, including chhau performers, through the very successful Lok Prasar Prakalpa programme."

Lok Prasar Praklpa is the brainchild of the Chief Minister and she had taken up the project to extend support to folk artistes. Folk artistes

above 60 years get pension of Rs 1,000 every month under the scheme.

At the same time, artistes below 60 years get retainer fee of Rs 1,000 per month and the state government also arranges programmes for them. The artistes are from different forms of folk arts, including chhau, natua and raibeshi.

In the first phase, the state government had included 84,720 folk artistes in the scheme and in the second phase, 1.14 lakh artists were brought, taking the figure to 2 lakh.

The scheme has helped in ensuring socio-economic upliftment of the folk artistes. Moreover, there are many traditional art forms of Bengal which were getting extinct, but timely intervention of the Chief Minister to extend necessary support to artistes of these art forms have saved the same.

Interestingly, the young generation is now taking interest in learning the art forms which were getting extinct.

Folk Artistes, who are part of the Lok Prasar Prakalpa which the Information and Cultural Affairs department implements, are also involved in carrying out promotion of different schemes and projects of the state government.

Moreover, the folk artistes are now invited to perform in different states and they also perform in different programmes across the state.

The Lok Prasar Prakalpa has created a platform for folk artistes. As a result, chhau artistes from Purulia now visit different parts of the country to perform and they are being featured in many Bollywood movies as well.

The state government also organises Loko Sangaskriti Utsav, in which thousands of folk artistes take part and in 2015, the Bengal government had organised it on a floating boat in Laldighi, opposite Writers' Buildings.