Kohima: Only 25 per cent of artists could avail of the help given by government and financial institutions, whereas the rest did not have access to any assistance.
This was revealed in a survey conducted by the North East Artist Network (NEAN) of Dimapur all over the North East Region.
According to a release issued by NEAN president Toshiba Jamir only about 20.83 per cent of artists could sustain their livelihood by the income from their profession, whereas 79.17 per cent were not able to meet even their day-to-day requirements.
The main reason for this drawback can be traced to factors like lack of better platform to showcase their talent, less support from government and other agencies to hone their skills by training them and insufficient funds to start their business.
Jamir said, ‘It can be said without doubt that Northeast has many talented people in various fields like music, dance, fine arts, culture, literature, films and traditional arts. But due to a variety of reasons, including financial, the majority of talent is left untapped and their potential to contribute to the nation and world at large is squandered and left to wither away.’ (UNI)