Jodhpur: In better times, Doda Khan recalls he flew to Italy with a group of musicians for Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi’s wedding. “Indira Gandhi gave me this,” the 75-year-old folk musician from Rajasthan’s Barmer district says with pride, pointing to his carefully preserved white kurta, embroidered with flowers along the edges. “It was so beautiful.” Singing along: John Singh (second from left), founder of non-profit Jaipur Virasat Foundation, with folk musicians in Jodhpur.

Besides playing at grand events, his music once graced the background of All India Radio. But as recently as a few years ago, his fortunes plummeted. He had trouble making ends meet, playing a handful of weddings per month for a few hundred rupees each. “It’s maybe enough to eat, but not any more than that,” he says. “For us, there are no jobs and not many opportunities.

We can only sing and perform.” Today, he has been able to rebuild his house and can now put aside time to take about 20 students—free of charge— thanks to a pension from the non-profit Jaipur Virasat Foundation. The foundation provides half-a-dozen ageing folk musicians Rs2,000-3,000 per month in their old age, according to founder John Singh.

In recent years, when the group was doing some relief work after the floods in Rajasthan, members noticed “top-notch artists who were languishing”. “We thought, how can we let them die in this kind of way or spend their last few years fighting to exist. It’s as much about self-respect as it is about livelihood,” says Singh, who also founded Anokhi, the clothing and furnishings company often credited with reviving Rajasthan’s block-printing industry.