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Replying in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of Culture said the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry, conducts training programmes for teachers and students of Government and Government-aided schools incorporating Indian classical and folk dance traditions.
Under CCRT's Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme, scholarships awarded in Indian classical dance rose from 225 in 2021-22 to 313 in 2025-26, with dips to 178 in 2022-23 and 269 in 2024-25.
The CTSS covers meritorious students aged 10-14 in recognised schools and children from families practising traditional performing arts, giving Rs 3,600 per annum plus reimbursement of tuition fees paid to the Guru up to Rs 9,000 per annum, initially for two years and renewable.
The Scholarships to Young Artists scheme provides Rs 5,000 per month for two years of advanced training to artists aged 18-25, including in Indian classical dance; funds released rose from Rs 3.90 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 5.38 crore in 2025-26.
Grants to CCRT, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Kalakshetra Foundation together were Rs 150.61 crore in 2025-26, after peaking at Rs 169.55 crore in 2024-25.
Indian classical dance forms trace their theoretical foundation to the Natya Shastra, the Sanskrit treatise on dramaturgy, dance and music attributed to Bharata Muni. It supplies the shared vocabulary the forms are judged against — the division of dance into nritta (pure rhythmic movement), nritya (expressive movement) and natya (dramatic enactment), the system of rasa or aesthetic emotion, and the codified hastas or hand gestures. A form is treated as classical when its technique, repertoire and grammar can be traced to this codified tradition and transmitted through a recognised guru-shishya lineage; folk forms, by contrast, are community traditions carried by practice rather than by a codified textual grammar. In administrative practice the operative list is the one recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, currently eight forms. The distinction is not a judgment of artistic worth — the Ministry supports folk forms through the same CCRT training programmes, which is why the reply lists Rai, Matki, Karma and Grida alongside Kathak.
Simple Analogy: Classical forms are like languages with a written grammar book and a teaching lineage; folk forms are living dialects passed on by ear in the community.
Links education with culture — trains teachers and students of Government and Government-aided schools in classical and folk arts and runs the Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme
India's national academy for music, dance and drama; recognises the eight classical dance forms and runs the Kala Dharohar series of lectures, workshops and performances for school children
Academy for Indian art and culture, centred on Bharatanatyam and Gandharvaveda music
The two sister national akademis — for visual arts and for letters respectively — completing the trio of national akademis under the Ministry of Culture, and the standard distractors in questions about which body recognises classical dance forms
Give specialised training in Indian classical dance and other cultural disciplines to talented children
Key: Implemented by CCRT for meritorious students aged 10-14 in recognised schools and for children of families practising traditional performing arts; Rs 3,600 per annum plus tuition fee reimbursement to the Guru up to Rs 9,000 per annum, initially for two years and renewable on satisfactory progress
Support advanced training for young artists across cultural fields including Indian classical dance
Key: Implemented by the Ministry of Culture; Rs 5,000 per month for artists aged 18-25 for a period of two years
Bring Indian performing arts to school children
Key: Organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as a series of lectures, workshops and performances
Make the arts a medium of learning across subjects rather than a separate optional activity
Key: The policy basis the Ministry cites for including classical dance in school education — NEP 2020 emphasises art-integrated, experiential and multidisciplinary learning
The CTSS design — a scholarship to the child plus reimbursement of tuition fees paid directly to the Guru — is a modern financing of the traditional guru-shishya transmission model on which classical dance training still rests
India's inscriptions on the Representative List include Kutiyattam, Ramlila, Vedic chanting, Ramman, Chhau, Kalbelia, Mudiyettu, Sankirtana of Manipur, Yoga, Kumbh Mela, Durga Puja in Kolkata and Garba of Gujarat — a list examiners test against the separate Sangeet Natak Akademi classical-dance list
Rai, Matki, Karma and Grida, named in the reply, are folk dance traditions of Madhya Pradesh supported through the same CCRT training route as Kathak — showing that the Ministry's school programmes cover both categories
Her founding of Kalakshetra in 1936 and her reworking of Sadir into the modern proscenium form of Bharatanatyam is the single most-cited episode in the twentieth-century revival of Indian classical dance
GS Paper 1 > Indian Heritage and Culture > Art Forms; GS Paper 2 > Cultural Institutions and Schemes
General Awareness > Art and Culture
General Awareness > Indian Culture
Classical dance forms and their States are among the most frequently repeated questions across UPSC Prelims, SSC and Railway general awareness
CCRT's scholarship for children aged 10-14 for specialised training in classical dance and other cultural disciplines — Rs 3,600 per annum plus up to Rs 9,000 per annum in tuition fee reimbursement
The Sanskrit treatise on dramaturgy, dance and music attributed to Bharata Muni, which supplies the theoretical grammar of India's classical dance forms
The classical dance form of Assam, associated with the Sattra monasteries of the Vaishnava tradition founded by Srimanta Sankaradeva, and the most recent addition to the Sangeet Natak Akademi's list
The Sangeet Natak Akademi's series of lectures, workshops and performances promoting Indian performing arts among school children