Sindh govt approves health cards for artists, poets

The Sindh Culture Department has decided to relax the minimum age requirement for the issuance of health insurance cards to the province’s arts community, which includes artistes, writers and poets.

The decision was made during the meeting of the endowment board of the culture department on Tuesday. Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah chaired the meeting. The minimum age criterion for the issuance of the health insurance card will now be 35 years, with artistes, writers, poets, etc. up to 65 years old being eligible for the scheme. Earlier, the age criterion was 45 years to 65 years.

Culture Director General Abdul Aleem Lashari said that an advertisement had been published in different newspapers to invite applications for the scheme, but after scrutiny it was found that some of the applications did not meet the age criterion. Culture Secretary Ghulam Akbar Laghari put forth the suggestion that the age criterion for applying could be relaxed, following which the board members approved the proposal.

The culture minister said on the occasion that the health insurance system was common in different countries of the world, so the same facility was being extended to the arts community in Sindh.

He expressed pleasure that the endowment board had approved applications for granting health insurance cards. He mentioned that the culture department had always taken care of the arts fraternity because they were part of the cultural and intellectual assets of the country.

The minister said that artistes, writers, poets, etc. were part of a very sensitive community in society, adding that irregardless of their own hardships and sufferings, they continued to enrich the world with their creative works.

He recalled that the endowment fund had decided to issue health insurance cards so that members of the arts community did not worry or seek help from anyone when they fell ill. The endowment board approved more than 500 applications for issuing health insurance cards. A total of 1,000 cards have to be issued in the first phase of the scheme.

The meeting was attended by the board members Syed Ahmed Shah, Talat Hussain, Ahmed Khan Solangi, Farooq Soomro, Taj Muhammad Halepoto, Muhammad Shujaat, Mazhar Jameel and others.