Yogi Adityanath at the launch of ‘Mission Shakti’ in Balrampur, which will focus on spreading awareness towards ensuring safety and dignity to women and the girl child. (Courtesy: Twitter/File) The Uttar Pradesh government will felicitate 100 women folk artiste groups under the “Mission Shakti” campaign in the coming months. The government aims to preserve folk art and promote women folk artistes of the state.
The “Mission Shakti” campaign was launched on October 17 and is a six-month drive to ensure safety and security of women and children.
A government spokesperson said as part of the initiative, undertaken by the Culture Department, women artistes will be given cash prize to buy musical instruments.
“We are in the process of selecting the names of 100 women folk artistes from the unique e-directory that we have already compiled. It contains the data of the 300 women folk artiste groups of the state. For folk dance, Rs 20,000 will be handed over to the senior artiste of the group, while those groups which are into folk music will receive Rs 10,000 each,” said Yogendra Pratap Singh, joint director, UP Directorate of Culture.
He said in the coming months, the department will hold a felicitation ceremony and distribute around Rs 20 lakh to these women artistes.
Singh added that in another initiative, the department is planning to form an archive of folk songs through mobile recording studios and also ensure its copyright, so that the actual artistes are acknowledged for their creations.
“Archiving their works and ensuring copyright will help artistes. The Sangeet Natak Academy has been entrusted with the task,” said Singh.
Apart from this, the department will also organise several programmes on International Women’s Day on March 8.