Scheme For Financial Assistance For Veteran Artists

The “Scheme for Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists”, earlier known as “Scheme for Pension and Medical Aid to Artists” was launched by the Ministry of Culture. The Scheme is meant for improving the financial and socio-economic status of the old artists and scholars who have contributed significantly in their specialized fields of arts, letters, etc. in their active age or are still contributing in the field of arts, letters, etc. but due to old age, they have to lead a miserable life or are in penury condition.
Under the scheme, financial assistance from the Government may be given in the form of a monthly allowance. Such allowance given to the artists recommended under the center-state Quota will be shared by the Centre and State Government/UT Administration concerned.
The following two types of cases/requests will be covered under the Scheme:

1. 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
2. Fresh cases of artists, writers, etc. who are eligible for a grant/monthly financial assistance under the extant guidelines of the Scheme.

Administration of the Scheme:
The Scheme will be implemented by the Ministry with the support of all Zonal Cultural Centres and SCZCC, Nagpur will be the main coordinator. The Ministry reserves the right to modify the provisions of the Scheme at any time. In order to implement the Scheme in a better perspective, the Scheme Guidelines will be circulated widely through State Governments/UT Administrations along with sharing the data of beneficiaries of the Central Government with them.

1. Under the scheme, a total allowance of ₹6000/- per month will be given to an eligible beneficiary.
2. In case of the death of a beneficiary getting an artist pension, the financial assistance may be transferred, at the discretion of the Central Government, in the name of the spouse of the beneficiary till life.

Note 01: The monthly allowance contributed by the State Government/UT Administration concerned shall be at least ₹500/- per month per beneficiary.
Note 02: The monthly allowance contributed by the Central Government shall not exceed ₹5500/- per month per beneficiary.
Note 03: Out of ₹6000/-, the monthly contribution of allowance of the Central Government will be less than the extent of the monthly contribution of allowance being provided to the applicant by the State Government/UT Administration.
Note 04: If State Government is already providing ₹1000/- per month pension to an artiste recommended to get financial assistance from the Central Government under this Scheme, in that case, the contribution of the Central Government would be only ₹5000/- per month.
Note 05: In respect of State Govt./UT Administration where there is no provision for an Artist's Pension, ₹6000/- per month will be paid as an Artist Pension by the Central Government.
Note 06: In case of the death of a beneficiary, a request application should be received in the Ministry of Culture from the spouse along with the relevant documents within the period of one year from the date of death of the beneficiary artist. After the period of one year, the claim for the transfer of pension in the name of the spouse will stand forfeited and no request in this regard shall be entertained.

• To be eligible for assistance under the Scheme, a person's contribution to art and letters, etc. must be of significance.
• Traditional scholars who have made significant contributions in their fields would also be eligible notwithstanding the absence of any published works.
• The personal income of the applicant (including the income of the spouse) must not exceed ₹4,000/- per month or an annual income of ₹48,000/-. [This excludes artiste pension assistance amount already getting by a beneficiary from the Government (i.e. concerned State Govt./UT Administration and/or Ministry of Culture)]
• The applicant should not be less than 60 (sixty) years of age (This does not apply in the case of a spouse).
• The applicant artiste is getting a pension of at least ₹500/- per month from the concerned State Government/UT Administration or is recommended by the Zonal Cultural Centres, Ministry of Culture, for the artists of their Members State where State Pension is not there.
• The applicant artists should not be getting financial assistance under other Schemes of the Ministry viz. Repertory Grant etc.

Online

Application Procedure:
The application may be made online through using the Registration/login Page of "Culture Scheme Monitoring System (CSMS)" on the website of the Ministry of Culture under the heading of "MOC Schemes Application".
Selection of Applicants for Award of Artists Pension:
Step 01: The applications of eligible artists found to be complete in all respects will be placed before Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Culture under the Scheme after getting physical inspection/verification of the applicants done by officer(s) of the Ministry of Culture or one of the organizations of Ministry of Culture.
Step 02: The Expert Committee will consider the applications in terms of extant guidelines of the Scheme and recommend the names of deserving candidates for the award of Artists' Pension solely on merit considering the financial position and eminence etc. of the applicant artist.
Step 03: The recommendations of the Expert Committee are to be examined by the Administration Division with reference to the Scheme guidelines and the rules of the Govt. as also the availability of funds under the Scheme to facilitate an appropriate decision by the Competent Authority.
Step 04: The cases of all the recommended candidates will be submitted finally for getting approval of the Competent Authority which will be one level above the Chairperson of the Expert Committee. Before the release of financial assistance to the approved candidates, the concurrence of the Internal Finance Division shall be obtained.
Disbursement of artist's pension:
Monthly Artist Pension to the approved existing beneficiaries (i.e. pensioner) and new artists to be included in the beneficiaries list subsequent to the recommendation of the Expert Committee and thereafter approval of the Competent Authority, will be disbursed by the Ministry of Culture through Public Financial Management System (PFMS)/Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) or through Service Provider (appointed by Ministry of Culture for disbursement of Artists Pension) directly into their bank account subject to receiving the following documents mandatorily online on the email of Artistes Pension Section of the Ministry i.e. documents.moc@gmail.com or artistspension.moc@gmail.com and after examination/scrutiny, the same are found to be in order:

1. Every Year in November, the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) of the beneficiary is processed through the Jeevan Pramaan Portal (https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in) by using necessary information like Aadhaar number, Mobile number, and Pension Payment Order (PPO) displayed by the Ministry on its website [Till the time the Aadhaar Card is made mandatory by the Government for an individual residing in the State of Assam, Meghalaya, and Jammu & Kashmir, they may submit a colored scanned copy of their original Life Certificate]; and
2. Every Five (05) Years, a Coloured scanned copy of the original Income Certificate in the prescribed format is issued by the concerned Competent Authority of the States/UTs. The beneficiaries will have to furnish any other requisite information/document(s) as sought by the Ministry from time to time. In case the requisite documents sought by the Ministry are not received from a beneficiary, the pension will not be released to him/her. Further, if any discrepancy is found in the documents furnished by the beneficiary, the pension may not be released or stopped forthwith till such time the discrepancy is rectified.

Renewal of financial assistance to existing beneficiaries:
Subject to the above provisions the recurring monthly allowance sanctioned under the Scheme to the existing beneficiaries shall be for such period as may be determined by the Central Government and/or may be continued on a year-to-year basis on receipt of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) and Income Certificate from them.
Discontinuance of allowance:
If the financial means of a recipient improve beyond ₹4000/- (Rupees four thousand only) per month or annual income of ₹48,000/- (Rupees forty-eight thousand only) [This excludes artiste pension assistance amount already getting by a beneficiary from the Government (i.e. concerned State Govt./UT Administration and/or Ministry of Culture)], allowance under the Scheme will be discontinued forthwith without any notice to the recipient. The government may also at its discretion terminate the allowance after giving three months' notice to the recipient.
Any recipient may also relinquish his/her right to receive allowance by giving written notice to the Government. In such cases, the allowance will be discontinued with effect from the date of his/ her letter of relinquish.
Contact Details:

1. Section Officer, 210, IInd, ‘D’Block, Puratatva Bhawan, G.P.O. Complex, I.N.A. New Delhi-110023. : (011)-24642165.
2. Manager (P & GS), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), 6th & 7th Floor, Jeevan Parkash, 25, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi- 110001.
3. Contact Nos. for Enquiries: 23708275, 23705953, Fax No. 23350832, Email: bo_g103[at]licindia[dot]com

Offline

1. The hard copy of the duly filled-in application form for the award of Artists' Pension along with all the necessary enclosures as mentioned in the application form may be sent to the following address through respective State Government/UT Administrations with their recommendations in the prescribed format- "The Director, South Central Zonal Cultural Centre, 56/1, Civil Lines, Opposite MLA’s Hostel, Nagpur, Maharashtra - 440001"
2. All entries in the application form should be legible and filled in clearly. Each page of the application and enclosures should be serially numbered and signed by the applicant. Further, the page number of the relevant document should clearly be indicated on the checklist.