Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar Initiative:
The Central Government has so far documented the cultural heritage of over 4.7 lakh villages under the ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar’ (MGMD) initiative.
- It is a pan-India initiative of Ministry of Culture under National Mission on Cultural Mapping and was launched on 27th July 2023.
- It was launched as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
- The main objective of the project is to culturally map India’s 6.5 lakh villages, spanning across all States and Union Territories, on a comprehensive virtual platform.
- The core idea behind this project is to encourage appreciation for India’s culture and traditions, paving the way for economic growth, social harmony, and artistic development in rural communities.
- It is aimed at mapping India’s intangible cultural assets.
- The programme is being implemented by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) under the National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM).
- Under the MGMD, information is collected under seven broad categories as given below:
- Arts and Crafts Village
- Ecologically Oriented Village
- Scholastic Village linked with Textual and Scriptural Traditions of India
- Epic Village linked with Ramayana, Mahabharata and/or Puranic legends and oral epics
- Historical Village linked with Local and National History
- Architectural Heritage Village
- Any other characteristic that may need highlighting such as fishing village, horticulture village, shepherding village etc.
