The folk culture of Bengal is a vibrant tapestry of traditional art forms, rituals, music and dance.
The TMC, soon after coming to power, took up progress and development work in every sector. Bengal folk and tribal artists were most deprived. They were deprived of state beneficiary schemes and projects. To preserve the traditional folk and tribal culture, it was necessary to improve the living conditions of the folk artists. The state initiated Lokprasar Prakalpa, brainchild of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The district information and cultural department, recently conducted a folk artists’ conference at Chinsurah Ravindra Bhavan, where folk and tribal artists from different parts of the district assembled. The traditional folk and tribal presentations are baul, bhatiali, bhawaiya, jhumur, gambhira, Lalengeeti, tusu and others.
The state government, to improve the living conditions of folk and tribal artists, has stated providing financial assistance on a monthly basis. Monthly pension schemes for senior folk artists, inviting folk artists to perform their presentation with the aim to revive, spread and preserve the rich folk art and culture of Bengal.
In the district 10,158 folk artists have been brought under the Lokprasar Prakalpa and 2,615 senior folk artists have been brought under pension scheme.
District magistrate Mukta Arya praised the folk artists for their cultural presentations and marvellous job that they are doing in spreading awareness on state government-supported beneficiary schemes through their new compositions on Duare Sarkar, Paraye Samadhan, dengue, 100 days’ work.