Travel Grant to Young Writers

Sahitya Akademi issues travel grants in all the 24 languages to young writers whose age is not above 40.

The main objective of this scheme is to enable young writer to come into close contact with a language region other than her or his own within India, acquaint her or him with writers and people he would not ordinarily meet and thereby widen his awareness and sensibility.

Travel grant is issued to young writers who are pursuing any creative literary work or project already.

The scheme also permits travel to attend functions organised by the Sahitya Akademi in a region other than that to which the empanelled writer belongs.

Sahitya Akademi issues travel grant only to the tune of Rupees Seventeen Thousand Only [₹ 17,000] per writer in a given language.

Every language advisory board can recommend the maximum of 5 young writers in a year for availing Travel Grant.

Terms & Conditions for availing Travel Grant

1. The writers eligible to travel grant should not be above 40 years of age.

2. The panel of writers shall be prepared by each Language Advisory Board. In respect of languages other than those recognised by the Akademi, writers may be selected by the President.

3. The scheme also provides for grants to authors to enable them to attend functions organised by the Akademi. The Regional Secretary shall be in touch with the Head Office and recommend names out of the panel prepared by Advisory Boards.

4. A writer who is offered this grant, and is interested in it, shall submit to the Regional Secretary of the concerned office (and to the Secretary of the Akademi if he is a writer in Rajasthani, Hindi, Dogri, Kashmiri, Urdu, English, Nepali, Sanskrit, Punjabi or Maithili) a letter of acceptance in Form A along with a travel plan in Form B.

5. The bill shall be submitted by the availing writer within a month after the completion of his or her journey.

6. Any writer who is issued Travel Grant in a particular year has to complete the travel and complete the formalities within that particular year only and cannot undertake travel in any other year. Sahitya Akademi will not reimburse the expenditure incurred in those cases.

7. In case the travel is not undertaken on schedule and if any advance is given, the amount of advance will have to be refunded to the Akademi within a maximum period of three months of its disbursement.

8. A grantee shall not be allowed to break up the grant in parts. The whole grant must be utilised during the course of a single tour.

9. All arrangements regarding railway reservations, accommodation, local and regional travel, etc. will have to be made by the grantee herself / himself. The Sahitya Akademi will not undertake any responsibility for these matters.

10. The Sahitya Akademi shall not bear any responsibility for the personal health and safety of the grantee or for the security of his belongings.

11. Wherever possible, the Akademi may inform the literary institutions recognised by it and the libraries of the area of the visit of the grantee, requesting them to extend their cooperation to him to make his visit fruitful.

12. The grantee will be expected to project a healthy image of the Sahitya Akademi and its broad national objectives and functions in the course of his lectures, talks or other literary activities to the places he visits.

13. The grantee should be able to express herself or himself cogently either in English or Hindi or in the principal language of the region he proposes to visit. On completion of the travel for which the grant is sanctioned, the grantee will have to submit a formal report to the Akademi, stating therein the persons he met or institutions she / he visited and her / his experiences of the visit.

14. A writer who avails of a travel grant of the Sahitya Akademi shall not draw travelling allowance or receive reimbursement of travel expenses from any other source whatsoever for the purpose for which Travel Grant was issued.

15. A writer who has availed of one travel grant of the Sahitya Akademi will not be eligible for another travel grant.