Education Assistance - Folk Artist(EAFA)

Overview

About EAFA

Search for a folk artist scholarship and nearly everything that comes back is the Ministry of Culture's award for young artistes in training. This one runs the other way round. The Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board does not pay a performer to study their art. It pays towards the school and college costs of the performer's son or daughter, and the qualifying test sits almost entirely on the parent.

The scheme is one welfare head among several run by the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, which the state created under the Art and Culture Department through G.O (Ms) No. 70, Tourism and Culture (CA 2) Department, dated 26.04.2007, to give folk artistes social security (Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, Department of Art and Culture).

Money moves through membership, not through a student's marks. The department reports 50,882 folk artistes enrolled with the board so far, and a total of Rs 1,98,72,917 sanctioned to 9,011 eligible artistes across all its welfare heads, which tells you the scale honestly: this is a small fund paying modest, per-stage sums, not a fee-covering scholarship (Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

Its legal footing is unusual for an education benefit. The board was formed under section 6 of the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers (Regulations of Employment and Conditions of Work) Act, 1982, which reaches folk artistes as manual workers employed in the occupation listed at item 67 of that Act's schedule, and the scheme it administers, implemented from 07.01.2008, covers the whole state (Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, RTI handbook, Government of Tamil Nadu). The benefit list was later brought into line with the other unorganised-sector workers welfare boards by G.O (Ms) No. 132, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Department, dated 17.09.2019, which is why older figures for this scheme still circulate (Department of Art and Culture).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No opening or closing date is published for this scheme, and none appears in the board's scheme text either. The dates that matter to a family are their own: the two-year membership renewal, which has to be current when the claim is made, and the point at which the stage-specific evidence exists, since a bonafide certificate or a mark sheet only comes into being after admission or after a result (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

A student cannot qualify on their own account here. The claim belongs to the registered parent, and the board settles it in the child's favour, so the first thing to establish is whether the parent's membership is live and clean rather than whether the student's marks are good enough.

What "registered" takes is not obvious from the scheme summary. A folk artiste enrolls at the folk artistes welfare board office inside the Regional Art and Cultural Centre for their district, or at the Directorate of Art and Culture if they are in Chennai, with proof of residence, age and family members such as a ration card or Aadhaar, a Village Administrative Officer's certificate as proof that they are an artiste, three passport photographs, photographs taken during a performance, and a registration fee of Rs 100. Enrollment is open to artistes who have completed 18 years and not completed 60 years (Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

That age band is worth stating plainly, because scheme-aggregator pages copy it into the wrong column and present it as an age rule for the applicant student. It is the artiste parent's membership age, and the board's own scheme text places no age bar and no family income ceiling on the child (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

Which art forms count is also settled, not judged case by case. Beyond the art forms named in the parent Act, artistes performing or teaching the 100 folk art forms listed in the department's book Tamizhaga Naattar Nigazhthu Kalaigal - Kalangiyam are accepted for registration (Department of Art and Culture); that list, notified through G.O (Ms) No.115 dated 12.06.2008, runs from Therukoothu and Karagaattam to Villu Paatu, Silambaattam and Bommalaattam (RTI handbook).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing is published under this benefit as an exclusion list. The four things that will actually sink a claim sit in the welfare board's membership clauses rather than in the education head, which is why a family reading only the scheme summary can miss every one of them. A parent whose registration has lapsed is out, because membership ends automatically on failure to renew and no benefit falling due during the lapse can be claimed afterwards, even after re-admission. A parent carrying dues to the board is out until they clear. A membership secured or used on a statement the registration authority finds false or incorrect can be suspended pending inquiry and then cancelled after a show-cause opportunity, and cancellation forfeits every claim under the scheme. And a child studying anywhere other than a government or government-recognised institution is outside the benefit entirely (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no continuing award to renew. The scheme text describes a per-stage payment with its own form and its own evidence at each stage, not a multi-year grant that carries forward, so a family claims again at the next qualifying stage rather than renewing the previous sanction (RTI handbook).

What does have to be renewed is the parent's membership, and that is where families lose the benefit. Registration runs for two years and then has to be renewed (RTI handbook); the department currently states the renewal fee as Rs 10 once in every two years, alongside a Rs 20 charge for a duplicate identity card if the original is lost (Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board). Every welfare head on the board's schemes page is written for a member "who has renewed his / her membership properly", which is the condition doing the real work.

What you get

Award & benefits

The department's own published schedule sets the amount by stage of study and by whether the student is in a hostel. The hostel row is not a top-up: it is a separate, higher figure for the same stage.

Two things in that table are easy to misread. "Professional" is defined, not left to interpretation: the department's schedule names law, engineering, medical and veterinary courses in the professional degree row, so a general BA or BSc sits in the plain degree row at a lower figure (RTI 4(1)(b) manual, Art and Culture Department). And the school-stage rows are written for a daughter studying in Class 10, 11 and 12, while the two rows for a completed public examination are not written by gender at all.

Published figures for this scheme do not all agree, and a family should know that before planning around a number. The myScheme entry sets three of the hostel rows above the department's schedule - the regular degree, the professional postgraduate and the ITI or polytechnic row - while its own answer on the professional postgraduate hostel maximum comes in below both. Part of that spread is age: the 2007 scheme text carries its own, lower amounts for the postgraduate and professional rows, and those keep resurfacing in write-ups (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board). Confirm the rate for your stage with the Assistant Director at the regional centre before you count on it.

• Financial Assistance for the children of registered folk artistes
• Girl and Boy children studying 10th - ₹1,000/-
• Girl children studying 11th - ₹1,000/-
• Girl and Boy children studying 12th - ₹1,500/-
• Regular Degree Course with Hostel facility - ₹3,250/-
• Regular Post Graduate Course with Hostel facility - ₹5,000/-
• Professional Degree Course with Hostel facility - ₹6,000/-
• Professional PG Course with Hostel facility - ₹10,000/-
• ITI or Polytechnic Course with Hostel Facility - ₹2,200/-

What to prepare

Documents required

The board asks for proof of three separate things: that the parent is a current member, that the child is genuinely enrolled where they claim, and, for a hostel row, that the child is actually in the hostel.

For the first two the board's schemes page names a copy of the identity card and a bonafide certificate or mark sheet with the application form (Folk Artistes Welfare Board schemes, Department of Art and Culture). The scheme text is more specific about who signs what: a certificate from the head of the educational institution or an officer, and, where a hostel amount is claimed, a certificate from the hostel warden attested by the institution head or officer (RTI handbook).

The application form is not one form. The scheme text routes the claim by stage: Form VIII for a completed Class 10 or Class 12, Form IX for a daughter studying in Class 10, 11 or 12, and Form X for everything from a degree through to a polytechnic or ITI course (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board). The board's site publishes downloadable forms for its marriage, spectacles and death assistance heads but not for education assistance, so collect the right form at the regional centre rather than expecting it online (Folk Artistes Welfare Board schemes).

Step by step

How to apply

This is an offline claim filed by the parent, at a counter, in the region where the family lives. Applications go to the Assistant Director at the Regional Art and Cultural Centre covering the district, and to the Deputy Director, Art and Culture Department, Government Music College Campus, Chennai, for families in Chennai (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

That mapping dates from the scheme's early years and does not name the districts Tamil Nadu has carved out since, so a family in a newer district should ask the centre that covers their parent district. The department's current RTI disclosure names a Regional Art and Cultural Centre at Coimbatore as well, alongside Kancheepuram, Thanjavur, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli and Tiruchirappalli (RTI 4(1)(b) manual, Art and Culture Department).

Tracking is the part with no digital answer, and it is better to know that at the start. myScheme records this as an offline application with no application link at all (Education Assistance - Folk Artist, myScheme). The department does run an online portal, and it even carries a college application status page, but what sits behind that menu is artist registration, college online applications and a separate financial assistance scheme for cultural programmes run by private organisations - not this benefit (Department of Art and Culture). Follow up where the papers were filed. The claim is sanctioned by the Secretary of the board or an officer the board authorises, so the regional Assistant Director's office that received the application is the right place to ask, and the board's Secretary is the appellate authority above it (RTI handbook).

How winners are picked

Selection process

There is no competition to win. The scheme text publishes no merit test, no ranking and no interview for education assistance; the sanctioning authority checks the claim against the eligibility conditions and the evidence, and pays the slab that matches the stage (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

Nor is there a published annual cap on how many children can be paid, which is a real difference within the same rulebook. The board's spectacles benefit is explicitly restricted to a fixed number of artistes a year on a first come, first served basis, and education assistance carries no equivalent line (RTI handbook). The practical limit is the family cap and the fund itself, not a cut-off list.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Assistance is capped at two children of a registered artiste, and where a husband and wife are both registered and both apply, only one of them is eligible for it (RTI handbook). The identity card that proves membership is issued free in Form II when a folk artiste registers, and a replacement costs the duplicate-card charge (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board).

A refusal is not the end of it. A registered artiste aggrieved by an order of the registration authority may appeal to the board within thirty days of receiving that order; the board may admit a later appeal for valid reasons it records in writing, but not past ninety days, and it then has three months from filing to dispose of the appeal (RTI handbook).

Get help

Contact

The board's office is the Secretary, Tamil Nadu Folk Artiste's Welfare Board, Government Music College Campus, Greenways Road, Chennai, which is also where the appellate authority for a rejected claim sits (RTI handbook, Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board). For anything to do with filing, renewing membership or checking on a pending claim, the working contact is the Assistant Director at the Regional Art and Cultural Centre for the district, or the Directorate of Art and Culture for families in Chennai (Department of Art and Culture).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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