Central idea: The government has identified and documented the unique cultural heritage of more than one lakh villages across the country under the National Mission for Cultural Mapping’s Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar programme.

Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar

• The National Mission for Cultural Mapping aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms, artists, and other resources across the country.
• The programme was launched by the Culture Ministry in 2017 but was handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in 2021.
• The programme aims to cover all the 6.5 lakh villages in the country.

Why such a program?

• 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.
• The villages have been classified into seven-eight categories based on ecological, developmental, scholastic, historical, and mythological importance.
• The mapping aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms, artists, and other resources across the country.

Survey process

• The survey process involves a CSC Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) conducting meetings with locals and then uploading interesting facts about their village, its places of interest, customs and traditions, famous personalities, festivals and beliefs, art and culture, etc., on to a special application.
• The IGNCA plans to create special films on 6,500 village clusters showcasing their unique heritage.
• Short films have been made on 750 cluster villages, which have been shot using drones, and the VLEs would upload these videos on the application as well.

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