Financial assistance for publishing works by SC/ST authors from T.N. increases by the government

on Aug 10, 2022

Tamil Nadu state government has increased the annual financial assistance from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh provided to nine Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe authors and two non-SC/ST authors so that they can publish their own works. However, the government made it clear that this assistance is only for Tamil publications or works translated in Tamil.

According to the latest government order, the works eligible for assistance, from 2022-23, would be selected by a panel headed by the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department Secretary. The Adi Dravidar Welfare Commissioner would be the member secretary of the expert committee with two Tamil professors as its members.

The material eligible for the assistance would be story books, a compendium of articles or poems, historic accounts and other related works while M.Phil. and doctorate research papers would be ineligible unless they were of exceptional value.

Like every year, the applications for it can be uploaded online through the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department website.

Authors selected for the assistance should publish their works in the book format containing 90 pages and print at least 1,000 copies within three months though the government would reserve the right to reduce the number of copies. The authors would be given half of the assistance in advance and the rest after the publication.

Also, a minimum of 10 copies of the published work must be given to the government and books that already released would not be eligible for this. While there is no age limit for the applicants, authors selected for the assistance once are allowed to apply again only after a gap of five years.

While the assistance would be given to nine individuals belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes including those who had converted to Christianity, it would also be offered to two more individuals who do not belong either to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes but had written about issues faced by them.

Advocate Karl Marx Siddharthar, a recipient of the assistance this year, welcomed the increase in the financial assistance and the changes made to the selection process. However, he was disappointed over the government for not accepting his request to provide assistance even to works that had been written in English.

Pointing out that the Tamil Nadu State Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had found force in his request and made an official recommendation to the State government for providing the assistance to English works too, he hoped the government would consider the request at least in future.