The ministry's primary task is to promote and protect Indian art, culture, heritage: Arjun Ram Meghwal
Employment generation is not the objective of the Union Ministry of Culture and its mandate is preservation and conservation of cultural heritage, protection, development and promotion of literature, music, dance, visual arts and drama, the Culture minister told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
He was replying to questions whether the government promoted Indian art, literature and culture to provide employment to the youth in the country.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal said the ministry's primary task is to promote and protect Indian art, culture, heritage, literature, music, dance and visual arts and the government provides the employment.
The members were, however, not satisfied and led to some uproar in the House.
Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party said, "Employment generation is the objective of the government, forget your ministry".
Mr Meghwal said all the activities carried out by the government help in generating employment opportunities.
"We do provide employment, but our primary objective is to promote culture," he said, adding it is the government that provides employment.
Jawahar Sarkar of the TMC said, "The minister has been partially misled in giving a wrong reply." He said the Culture Ministry does provide employment on a large scale.
Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said in a written reply, "The mandate of the Ministry of Culture is preservation & conservation of cultural heritage, protection, development & promotion of literature, music, dance, visual arts and drama. Employment generation is not the objective of the Ministry."
"However, the activities carried out through various organisations under the Ministry generate indirect employment to a large number of people associated with Indian Art, Literature and Culture."
"There are several academic, fellowships, scholarships and training programmes organised by the autonomous bodies of the Ministry of Culture which help the artists to find employment in their field of expertise," he said.
The minister also informed the House that the ministry has spent a total of Rs 789.4 crore in the last three years.
During 2021-22, he said, the ministry had a budget of Rs 285.34 crore as grants for various government institutions.