News Excerpt:

Cultural Mapping initiative launched in India under the National Mission on Cultural Mapping.

More about the news:

• Under the National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM), the government has taken the initiative to provide a comprehensive overview of the cultural heritage of 6.5 lakh villages across India.
• The Census List of 2011, published by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, has identified 45561 villages of Bihar, of which 36127 have been covered by the cultural mapping project. In the Khagaria district, 262 of the 303 villages have been covered.
• The database of the project is accessible through the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar Web Portal. It can be used effectively by any government ministry or other government organization to safeguard and promote the cultures, traditions, art forms, and other cultural identities of the identified villages.

National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM):

• It has been set up by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, to identify and document India’s cultural heritage and its creative potential to regenerate and revitalize rural economies, thereby making Village India self-reliant.

• The Cultural Mapping will function at three levels:

• • National Directories of artists and living human treasures of cultural industries.
  • Creation of National Digital Inventories/ Registers of art expression and artist communities/bearers of tradition.
  • Evolve policies toward the preservation of art practices and develop welfare schemes for their practitioners.

• Mission Mandate:

• • To envision and address the necessity of preserving the threads of rich Indian Art and Cultural Heritage.
  • To create a national database through Cultural Mapping with the aid of extensive ground surveys and documentation.
  • To design a mechanism to fulfill the aspirations of the nation's whole artiste community.
  • To preserve, safeguard, revitalize, and disseminate the rich cultural heritage of this country for future generations.
  • To create a strong “Cultural Vibrancy” throughout the nation with the help of digital platforms and outreach activities.

• Objectives:

• To culturally map the art traditions and cultural practices along with the artists and craft persons engaged in the preservation of these art forms.
• To create awareness about the strengths of the cultural heritage of diverse communities of India and develop an interface between culture and identity.
• To provide a single platform for dissemination of knowledge in arts, and various welfare schemes of the Government for the art practitioners and enhancement of cultural resources.
• The above-mentioned objectives will be carried out with the help of three interlinked programs.

Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (MGMD):

MGMD Portal provides open access to the following facilities:

• Registration of art forms and artists.
• Unique Identification Code (UIC) for the Artists.
• Link to welfare schemes of the Government.
• Uploading facility for cultural events/ and art and craft products/ Artists’ workshops
• Editing and updating of village data by the users.
• A virtual living museum.
• Village travel passport.
• Digital Indi-badges for online village travel.

Preservation of intangible culture is a challenging task as it refers not only to an end product, which is not tactile but primarily oral and aural. There is an urgent need to take strong and timely safeguarding measures to ensure their preservation, sustainability, and revitalization with community-based initiatives in line with State-community partnerships. Safeguarding measures start with identification and mapping art forms and practices along with the bearers and practitioners, the artists and craftspersons.