Preservation of folk, tribal art a challenge: Minister

Preservation of folk and tribal art and culture is a major challenge in the country due to the rapid urbanisation, Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch informed the Lok Sabha Tuesday.

To meet this challenge, the government had set up seven zonal cultural centres (ZCCs) during 1985-86 with the objective to preserve, innovate and promote projection and dissemination of arts in various regions across the country.

"The ZCCs endeavour to develop and promote the rich diversity and uniqueness of various arts of the zone and to upgrade and enrich consciousness of the people about their cultural heritage," the minister said in reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha.

"The ZCCs have been carrying out various activities and organising programmes at the national, zonal and local levels in accordance with their aims and objectives, achieved through the various schemes which inter-alia include documentation of vanishing art forms," she said.

These centres are headquartered at Patiala, Udaipur, Allahabad, Kolkata, Dimapur, Nagpur and Thanjavur.