Handicraft Sector in India: An Instrument for Rural Economic Growth and Women Empowerment

Nowadays, the Indian government is paying more attention to handicraft products and promoting handicraft artisans. Indian handicraft has so much potential to generate employment and income. Data is used from the 3rd and 4th handloom census and the Export Promotion Council of Handicraft (EPCH). This paper tries to explore the workforce participation of handloom workers and the export performance of handicraft products. A major finding in this paper is that Indian handicrafts is rural and women-based industries. About 25 lakh women and 27 lakh rural workers are engaged out of 31 lakh workers. Major contributing states are Assam, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Also, observed that worker engagement has risen over decades. In 2021, a total of 4.3 billion US dollars in handicraft products were exported from India. The USA is the main trading partner of handicraft products. And it also shows that the share of export of every handicraft product has increased in past years, therefore, we can undoubtedly say that Indian handicraft is the future of the world handicraft market, especially in the aspect of employment and income. Hence, it concludes that Indian handicraft industries are instruments of rural growth and women empowerment.