When banglanatak.com first started working among the Chhau dancers of Purulia district in West Bengal there were barely a dozen troupes. Today there are 150. Not all of them are connected with the banglanatak.com initiative. The revival that it created caused teams to come up spontaneously from within the community.
The dancers initially earned a negligible amount. For record-keeping, banglanatak.com put down their income as Rs 500 per month. By 2013, the median income had gone up to Rs 3,500 per month, with the top 10 percent earning more than Rs 30,000. There are. . .