The DMK has launched a heavy publicity campaign around it. The advertisement describes it as “a special three-day training workshop for Adi Dravidar and Tribal youth to learn and celebrate traditional arts.”
Published Sep 20, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 20, 2025 | 7:00 AM
Aadhi Kalaikkol workshop. (Facebook)
Synopsis: Is giving art training to Scheduled Communities the Chief Minister MK Stalin’s discretionary scheme? If art training is to be done using TAHDCO funds, then what is the role of the Art and Culture Department?
The Tamil Nadu Government’s Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department, through Tamilnadu Adi Dravidar Housing Development Corporation (TAHDCO), has announced a programme titled “Aadhi Kalaikkol Workshop – 2025”, to be held on 22, 23, and 24 September.
The DMK has launched a heavy publicity campaign around it. The advertisement describes it as “a special three-day training workshop for Adi Dravidar and Tribal youth to learn and celebrate traditional arts.”
The training is said to cover, folk arts, dramatic arts, literary arts, and visual arts. And the eligibility? One must be born into an Adi Dravidar or Tribal community.
The DMK’s publicity for this programme — claiming to turn Scheduled Community youth into “artists” — features the dramatic orator and poet Manushyaputhiran (Abdul Hameed Sheikh Mohammed), lyricist Yugabharathi, Loyola College arts professor R Kalaiswaran, art directors Jayakumar and SS Moorthi, film actor Gopinathan, and TV actor R Jayachandran. All are shown appealing to Scheduled Community youth to take to the arts.
TAHDCO — the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Ltd — was originally created to provide housing development for Scheduled Castes.
Since Dravidian governments did not create a separate body to provide grants or loans for entrepreneurship among Scheduled Communities, TAHDCO was used for that purpose too. Over time, TAHDCO came to be known primarily as a lending institution.
Yet, even in that role, it has failed. Loans have not been properly disbursed. Entrepreneurship has not flourished. Thousands of applications remain pending. At one stage, people were even told to apply online — but the website itself did not work.
Over time, TAHDCO funds began to be used for all sorts of contracts, projects, and even for routine expenses of welfare officials — Secretaries, Directors, District Officers, Special Tahsildars. In effect, TAHDCO funds have become like the endless purse of Manimekalai, dipped into at will.
Now, under the pretext of “art training,” TAHDCO funds are again being siphoned off.
On TAHDCO’s own website, no scheme relating to art training is listed. Its main schemes include:
From 2022-23 onwards, TAHDCO listed only skill development training in areas like IT & ITES, Electronics & Hardware, Banking & Finance, Healthcare, Beauty & Wellness, Agriculture, Media & Entertainment, Food Processing, Aerospace & Aviation, Construction, Life Sciences, Gems & Jewellery, Textiles & Handloom, Tourism & Hospitality, Retail, Logistics, Green Jobs, etc.
Nowhere is “art training” mentioned.
Does the government have any evidence that giving Scheduled Community youth art training will lead to their advancement? Did anyone ask for such a programme? Was any consultation done? Was a policy decision made? Is there a government order? The answer seems to be no.
If not, then is this workshop being conducted under a Chief Minister’s discretionary fund, like the Collector’s or MD’s discretionary fund?
If Chief Minister MK Stalin — as the son of Kalaignar — truly has boundless love for Tamil arts, then why not use the Tamil Development Department’s funds? Why not conduct it under the Art and Culture Department? Why route it through TAHDCO, and that too only for Scheduled Communities?
For comparison — when a felicitation was held for Ilaiyaraaja, from which fund was that conducted?
When there is already a Tamil Development Department and an Art & Culture Department, if art training for Scheduled/Tribal communities is funded only from the Welfare Department — through TAHDCO — then what clearer example of untouchability can there be?
If art training is to be given to Scheduled Communities using the Welfare Department’s funds, then will art training for other communities be conducted using the funds of the Art and Culture Department? Under the Department of Art and Culture, welfare boards and schemes for folk artists are already being implemented — are there caste-based distinctions even there? When folk artists belong to all castes, why is special training for Scheduled Communities being given only through their department funds?
Among Scheduled Communities, are there those who have achieved wealth and royal recognition in folk arts the way Pushpavanam Kuppusamy or Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan have? Even when honoured with a Padma Shri award, a parai artist like Velu Aasan is still forced to live without a proper house! In such a situation, can Scheduled Communities really progress by depending on arts? Can those who undergo training in the “Aadhi Kalaikol Workshop” at least use that training to secure a loan from a bank?
Scheduled Communities have historically excelled in ethics, knowledge, scientific discoveries, governance, and military administration. Their excellence is documented in inscriptions, literature, and archaeological evidence. Though suppressed during the Vijayanagara period, they rose again and have been thriving through education, unique talents, creativity, and political acumen.
Even today, they continue to research and write about their glorious history. It is precisely such a resilient community that is now being pushed into art training as a way of eliminating them.
DMK must remember that in Tamil Nadu’s history, senior leaders from Scheduled Communities fought fiercely to abolish practices like parai drumming and other menial jobs. In a society where the dominant caste groups treat art as a servile occupation, pushing Scheduled Communities alone into it is nothing but a conspiracy.
The Scheduled Communities must understand this conspiracy of the DMK.
Even though the DMK introduced the “Ambedkar Entrepreneurial Scheme,” it has not been implemented properly.
The applications of a vast majority (85 percent) who applied were rejected, leaving them disappointed. When such constructive schemes for entrepreneurship are ignored and funds are instead spent on art workshops, what could be more deceitful?
The reservation quota has not been increased in proportion to population. Even the existing quota is not fully filled. Within that, through internal reservations, opportunities of majority Scheduled Communities are taken away.
In employment, promotions are denied by refusing reservation in career advancement. Meanwhile, welfare schools are being dismantled, welfare hostels are being privatized, and infrastructure in educational institutions is in poor condition.
Scholarships for higher education are not being fully provided. Even if one manages to complete studies, jobs are being taken away by those from northern states.
In every possible way, the progress of Scheduled Communities is being blocked. The DMK government, instead of ensuring genuine development, is telling them: “We give you food to survive; in return, do our sanitation work.”
And now, the remaining youth are being pushed into a livelihood of begging for rice, drinking arrack, beating drums, staging street plays, donning the costumes of kings and queens, and performing for caste Hindus.
The DMK seeks to run the Aadhi Kalaikol Workshop as if art is the natural “hereditary occupation” suitable only for Scheduled Communities.
Even while funds meant for Scheduled Communities’ advancement are misused in such ways, unspent funds are being returned. This is the biggest conspiracy of the DMK against Scheduled Communities.
Poets like Yugabharathi must recognize and resist such conspiracies. Alliance parties must condemn it.
Leaders of alliance parties such as Congress leader K. Selvaperunthagai, CPI(M) secretary P. Shanmugam, CPI secretary M. Veerapandian, and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, being from Scheduled Communities themselves, must speak up to the DMK.
Among them, since the VCK has kept Paraiyars as its core cadre, it has an even greater responsibility. The VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan must not leave people wondering: is he with M.K. Stalin or with his own community?
One is reminded of the proverb: “In a land with no just ruler, a fool becomes the chief.”
(Views expressed here are personal, edited by Sumavarsha)
