About
To revitalise the education system by creating understanding and awareness among teachers, students, and educational administrators about the plurality of India's regional cultures, and to integrate cultural knowledge with formal education.
The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, established in May 1979. It was pioneered by Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, two of the most consequential figures in independent India's cultural policy landscape. At its founding, CCRT took over the Scheme for Propagation of Culture among College and School Students, which had been implemented by Delhi University since 1970. Its headquarters are in New Delhi, with four regional centres at Udaipur (west), Hyderabad (south), Guwahati (northeast), and Damoh (central India). CCRT's core mandate is to revitalise India's education system by creating awareness among teachers, students, and educational administrators about the plurality of India's regional cultures, and to integrate cultural knowledge with formal schooling. Its main thrust is teacher training: a variety of in-service programmes for teachers, teacher educators, and educational administrators throughout the country. It also runs the Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme (CTSSS) for students aged 10 to 14, instituted in 1982. The CCRT Teachers' Award, given annually since 1985, recognises outstanding work by teachers in education and culture.
The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training was born out of a conviction held by two of the most remarkable women in independent India's cultural administration: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Kapila Vatsyayan.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (1903 to 1988) was among the foremost figures of India's independence movement and its post-independence cultural reconstruction. She had rebuilt India's crafts sector after partition, established the All India Handicrafts Board, and brought Indian handlooms and handicrafts to international recognition. She understood, with rare clarity, that culture could not be sustained without education, and that education in India was proceeding in a way that was increasingly alienated from the country's living artistic and cultural traditions.
Kapila Vatsyayan (1928 to 2020) was a classical dancer, art historian, and the most important cultural policy thinker of her generation. She had served in the Ministry of Education and later the Ministry of Culture, and would go on to found IGNCA. Her understanding of Indian classical aesthetics, across music, dance, architecture, and visual art, gave CCRT its intellectual framework: the idea that culture was not an add-on to education but its deepest foundation.
CCRT was set up in May 1979 to translate this conviction into operational programmes. Its first task was to take over the Scheme for Propagation of Culture from Delhi University, which had been running since 1970, and systematise it into a national teacher-training network. The premise was simple but far-reaching: if teachers could experience and understand India's diverse artistic traditions through direct exposure, they could carry that understanding into classrooms across the country, creating a generation of students with genuine cultural literacy.
Over the following four decades, CCRT built a wide range of programmes. Its Orientation Courses for in-service teachers, two-week intensive formats at headquarters and regional centres, blend lectures by scholars and artists, practical workshops in folk and classical forms, and methodological sessions on incorporating cultural content into the curriculum. Thematic workshops like 'Role of Puppetry in Education' and 'Theatre Arts in Education' have been staples since 1979. The Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme, launched in 1982 for students aged 10 to 14, provides financial support for outstanding young performers across classical and folk disciplines.
The regional centre network, with centres opened at Udaipur and Hyderabad in 1995 (on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources Development), and subsequently at Guwahati and Damoh, has been critical to the CCRT's ability to serve a geographically diverse country. The Hyderabad centre (item 8 on the source list) is one of these regional nodes: not a separate institution, but the CCRT's southern regional presence.
Visit & Access
Founding & Leadership
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 to 29 October 1988) was a freedom fighter, social reformer, and the foremost architect of India's post-independence crafts revival. She established the All India Handicrafts Board and brought Indian handlooms to global recognition. Kapila Vatsyayan (25 December 1928 to 16 September 2020) was a classical dancer, art historian, and the founding Director-General of IGNCA. She formulated the intellectual framework for linking culture with education that underpins CCRT's entire programme.
Leadership & Trustees
Initiatives & Portfolio
Two-week intensive Orientation Courses blending lectures by artists and scholars, hands-on workshops in folk and classical arts, and methodologies for integrating cultural content into classroom teaching. Delivered at headquarters and all four regional centres throughout the year.
National-level scholarship scheme for students aged 10 to 14 in classical and folk arts, instituted in 1982. Annual national competition.
Annual award to selected teachers in recognition of outstanding work in education and culture. Given since 1985; carries a citation, a plaque, an angavastram, and a cash prize.
Educational activities for formal school students (government and government-aided schools) and children in non-formal schools run by voluntary organisations.
Survey and documentation of endangered folk arts and practices across India through fieldwork, audio-visual recordings, photographs, and written records.
Four regional centres: Udaipur (west, 1995), Hyderabad (south, 1995), Guwahati (northeast), and Damoh (central India). [The Hyderabad centre, listed separately in the source as item 8, is a CCRT regional node, not a separate institution.]
CCRT's cultural significance lies in the scale and depth of its intervention in the teacher education system. It has, over four decades, created structured exposure to India's performing and visual arts traditions for thousands of in-service teachers who would otherwise have had no formal opportunity to encounter them. The Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme has provided a national-level recognition and support pathway for children in classical and folk disciplines at an age when sustained financial support can determine whether they continue or stop. The CCRT Teachers' Award has created an incentive structure for teachers who integrate culture into their work. Taken together, these instruments represent a sustained attempt to make cultural literacy a normal part of the Indian school system rather than an elite preserve.
CCRT is the government's most direct instrument for bringing culture into the education system, and it operates with less visibility than it deserves. Its founders, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Kapila Vatsyayan, are two of the most important names in India's cultural history, which gives CCRT an unusually distinguished intellectual lineage. Its teacher training model, now running for 46 years, represents one of the longest-sustained cultural education interventions in the country. The four regional centres (Udaipur, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Damoh) extend its reach across major geographies. Worth noting: items 8 (CCRT Regional Centre Hyderabad) and 10 (CCRT) in the source list are the same institution; this profile consolidates both.