NATIONAL MISSION FOR CULTURAL MAPPING – POLITY
News: Mission
to map rural India’s cultural assets covers over one lakh villages
What's in the news?
● In
a bid to harness the unique cultural heritage of rural India, the government
has identified and documented distinctive features of more than one lakh villages across the country.
Key takeaways:
● In
this cultural asset mapping, villages have been broadly divided into
seven-eight categories based on whether they are important ecologically,
developmentally and scholastically, if they produce a famous textile or
product, and if they are connected to some historical or mythological events
such as the Independence struggle or epics like the Mahabharata.
Cultural Mapping:
● The
entire exercise has been carried out under the ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar‘(My Village My Heritage) programme of the
National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).
Categories of the villages:
● Ecological category
- for example, includes the Bishnoi village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, which is
a case study for living in harmony with nature, and Uttarakhand’s Raini
village, which is famous for the Chipko movement.
● Developmental importance
like Modhera in Gujarat, which is the first solar-powered village in India.
● Historical categories
include Kandel in Madhya Pradesh, the site of the famous ‘Jal Satyagraha’, and
the villages of Hanol in Uttarakhand and Vidurashwathar of Karnataka, which are
linked to the Mahabharata. Suketi in Himachal Pradesh, Asia’s oldest fossil
park, and Pandrethan in Kashmir, the village of Shaivite mystic Lal Ded, are
also classified for their historical importance.
National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM):
● The
National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM) aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms,
artists and other resources across the country.
● The
program seeks to document the cultural identity at the village level by
involving citizens to share what makes their village, block, or district
unique.
Aim:
● It
is aimed to address the necessity of preserving the threads of rich Indian Art
and Cultural Heritage, convert vast and widespread cultural canvas of India
into an objective Cultural Mapping while creating a strong “Cultural Vibrancy”
throughout the nation.
Nodal Agency:
● It
was launched by the Ministry of Culture
in 2017, the programme got off to a slow start and was handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts
(IGNCA) in 2021.
● IGNCA
was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of
Culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the
field of the arts.
Target:
● The
IGNCA plans to cover all the 6.5 lakh
villages in the country.
● As
of today, short films have been made on 750 clusters villages. The films, which
give a 360degree view of the village, have been shot using drones.
● Plans
are also afoot to create special films on 6,500 village clusters showcasing
their unique heritage.
Objectives of the Mission:
Under
this Mission, at broad-level, there are three important objectives as follows:
1. National Cultural Awareness Abhiyan:
Hamari Sanskriti Hamari Pahchan Abhiyan (Our Culture Our Identity)
2. Nationwide Artist Talent Hunt/Scouting Programme:
Sanskritik Pratibha Khoj Abhiyan
3. National Cultural Workplace:
Centralised Transactional Web Portal with database and demography of cultural
assets and resources including all art forms and artists.
Significance of the mission:
● Revival
and safeguarding of oral traditions
● Fostering
cultural awareness
● Cultural
preservation
● Sustainable
employment to creative industries
● Optimal
resource allocation and utilization
● Creation
of an objective database for inclusive growth of cultural heritage.