New Delhi Mar 24 PTI Employment generation is not the objective of the Union Ministry of Culture and its mandate is preservation and conservation of cultural heritage protection development and promotion of literature music dance visual arts and drama the Culture minister told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday He was replying to questions whether the government promoted Indian art literature and culture to provide employment to the youth in the country Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal said the ministrys primary task is to promote and protect Indian art culture heritage literature music dance and visual arts and the government provides the employment The members were however not satisfied and led to some uproar in the House Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party said Employment generation is the objective of the government forget your ministry Meghwal said all the activities carried out by the government help in generating employment opportunities We do provide employment but our primary objective is to promote culture he said adding it is the government that provides employment Jawahar Sarkar of the TMC said The minister has been partially misled in giving a wrong reply He said the Culture Ministry does provide employment on a large scale Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said in a written reply The mandate of the Ministry of Culture is preservation conservation of cultural heritage protection development promotion of literature music dance visual arts and drama Employment generation is not the objective of the Ministry However the activities carried out through various organisations under the Ministry generate indirect employment to a large number of people associated with Indian Art Literature and Culture There are several academic fellowships scholarships and training programmes organised by the autonomous bodies of the Ministry of Culture which help the artists to find employment in their field of expertise he said The minister also informed the House that the ministry has spent a total of Rs 7894 crore in the last three years During 2021-22 he said the ministry had a budget of Rs 28534 crore as grants for various government institutions PTI SKC AQS AQS