Why in News:

• According to Culture Ministry officials, Culture mapping of 80 villages associated with noted personalities in history, in particular the freedom movement, unique crafts and festivals, had been started as a pilot project.

About the project

• Villages with a connection to the Independence struggle as well as those with their own art practices had been selected for the pilot project being conducted by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
• The aim is to create a huge database related to our villages and the culture, customs and traditions there.
• The project would lead to a national register and interactive database of artists and art practices from the villages of India. 
• Each artist would be given a unique ID and an e-commerce platform set up.
• IGNCA, which is an autonomous organisation under the administrative control of the Ministry of Culture, has been designated as implementation agency for the National Mission on Cultural Mapping. 
• The work under the mission involves coordinating the data collection through ground and field surveys conducted on the basis of detailed formats and questionnaires, mobile application, interactive web-portal and an Over-The-Top (OTT) platform to showcase ethnographic documentaries/ cultural events/ festival/ melas etc. of villages

Some of the villages in the current  list

• Sempore or Pandrenthan in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir that is associated with 14th Century mystic Lal Ded or Lalleshwari. 
• From Ladakh, the pilot project included Choglamsar and Wanla villages, known for wood carving. 
• Khatkar Kalan village in Punjab, which has a memorial of Bhagat Singh; 
• Reni village of Uttarakhand, where the Chipko movement started; 
• Kathputli Colony in Delhi, known for the “migrant kathputli artists”.
• Two villages of Tamil Nadu – Ettayapuram (the birthplace of poet Subramania Bharathi) and Thiruchigadi (a village of “women potters”) – are also on the list.
• Kanjirapally village, associated with Accama Cherian, an Independence activist known as the Jhansi Rani of Travancore, was on the list. 

To read about National Mission on Cultural Mapping- https://officerspulse.com/national-mission-on-cultural-mapping/ 

 Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/culture-mapping-of-80-villages-kicks-off/article37842557.ece