Page 277 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

252 P.J. Amala Dos

virtue of the money that he has, he gives us some advance, anything
from Rs 5,000 to 10,000 for the whole of the year, according to the
roles that we play in folk art forms. Basically, he gets us as bonded
labour and we work under him. We do not know even how much money
he gets paid. Suppose he gets Rs 10,000 for a programme, he then
hardly gives a few thousand rupees to the artists. We do not benefit from
it, since we have already taken an advance from him. If we ask him for
it, we will be beaten up by goondas (thugs). We basically experience
exploitation at the hands of agents.
If artists approach television and radio, the government’s ‘popular
media’, they face a similar problem. The culture of commission and the
rigid rules of the central and state government media do not allow us
programmes easily. The Federation, many groups and I myself have
registered protests challenging TV authorities and the quality of TV
folk forms. They just employ people with no relation whatsoever with
the folk arts, resulting in very awkward programming The state does
not take care of the real folk artists, or even contact us, and prefer to
cater only to the elite.
NGOs, by virtue of the academic qualifications of the workers, fi-
nance and other means, learn some of the tunes and body movements
of the folk forms, and take upon the right to act as folk artists. This is
just exploitative, as they are able to perform for the government and
various educational institutions instead of the real artists. That said,
there are genuine researchers and we do have respect for them.
In Tamil Nadu there is a well-known and notorious artist called
Vijay Lakshmi. She is given Rs 33,000 for one show. For the same
programme, which will last a number of hours, we are given a mere
Rs 3,000. Moreover, we have to lobby hard for being given the chance of
performing and earning a commission. This is exploitation as well.
There is also exploitation by consumers. Let us take very popular
forms like karakattam (girls’ dance), leather puppetry or other popular
song forms, and there are many of them, in which women take part.
If in my troupe I have young attractive girls, then I am more likely to
be given a programme.
In this context, instead of taking upon themselves the role of the
artists, the role of the NGOs in using folk media has to be limited as
providers of information to folk artists and as facilitators to help them
use the given information to make folk forms that can create awareness