A report on India’s crafts sector has good news and bad news. The bad news first: a weaver in Tamil Nadu who makes your Kanjivaram sari is only getting paid Rs 270 a day. This despite the handloom sector being one of the largest sources of employment after agriculture. The good news is that a lot has changed after Covid. Children of artisans who thought the profession of their fathers was a “badge of shame” now with the mobile phone and access to online training programmes, are returning to rural areas and households making the most of the handmade tradition. Of course, what they do want is skill development, market access and filling the gaps in craft infrastructure.
An Assamese mekhela chador can cost anywhere from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 based on textile and workmanship, likewise a Kanjivaram sari from Tamil Nadu in the market can fetch upwards of Rs 30,000. The weaver who takes about a month to make them doesn’t get more than Rs 7,000 a month. These are some of the findings of the ‘Economics of Indian Craft: Estimating Employment and Value Added in the Handicraft and Handloom Sector’ report, brought out by the Crafts Council of India (CCI) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD).
The survey, done primarily in 2024, covered units and people engaged in manufacturing handloom or handicraft products across five states – Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal. While the Economic Survey 2025-26 mentions that the handicrafts industry employs nearly 64.66 lakh artisans across the country, this survey estimates the number at 113 lakh artisans.
Prof GC Manna, former director-general, National Sample Survey Organisation and Central Statistics Office, who was the team lead and presented the report at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on May 18, also mentioned a significant number of handloom establishments remain unregistered under any formal government scheme or programme. While West Bengal reported the highest proportion at 3.8 per cent, Uttar Pradesh reported the lowest at 0.1 per cent. This also meant a “majority of them had learned the making through traditional, inherited and caste-based knowledge”.
“Indian handmade is our identity and landscape against which our freedom was built. While the emphasis stayed with the first Five Year Plan, things began to change by the late 1990s and early 2000s, when we were told by those in the government that handmade has no future, that it is a ‘sunset industry’. For those of us who have been working with craftspeople, we were told like the maharajas and snake charmers, handicrafts too had to go. Then in 2004, we happened to visit China, where a person from Beijing told us the two vital industries in their country was IT and handicraft. They called it their ‘sunrise industry’. The cultural revolution had wiped away centuries-old indigenous knowledge and they were determined to get it back. Around the same time, the European Union (EU) had promoted ‘Future is Handmade’ slogan. It was a going back to the culture of creativity and innovation,” says Professor Ashok Chatterjee, advisor, CCI, and former director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
The ‘Economics of Indian Craft’ survey also shows how a substantial number of craftspeople are women, taking the number to 71.6 per cent in the five states, though education is these states are at primary school level or below and there is a visible lack of technical education among the owners of these units.
The challenges that craftspeople face include access to raw materials, finance and social security. While market fluctuations have had their impact, there is an acceleration among the younger generation to move out of cities and enrol in entrepreneurship schools to enhance their marketing skills.
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The report thus suggests to “strengthen the status of master craftspersons as key trainers, mentors and knowledge holders with technology and design institutions supporting their role”.
