Indian Handicraft Industry

Crafts are unique expressions that represent a culture, tradition and the heritage of a country. India is well known for its exotic crafts legacy and tradition. It is the land of art and crafts, a country of rich culture, history and traditions. A wide range of Indian Crafts represents the diversity of crafts tradition in India. Variety of designs and finishes are available in Indian market that reflects excellent artistic skills of craftsmen are great in demand globally. India is one of the important suppliers of handicrafts to the world market. The Indian handicrafts industry is spread all over the country in rural and urban areas. Thousands of skilled artisans are engaged in crafts work.

Handicrafts Industry is playing a major role in the development of Indian economy. This sector is economically important from the point of low capital investment, high ratio of value addition, and high potential for export and foreign exchange earnings for India. The export earnings from Indian Handicrafts Industry for the period 1998-99 amounted to Rs.1200.00 crores.

According to the provisional data available, the exports of Handicrafts have increased up to Rs. 10746.24 crores in 2007-2008.

As per the latest updates, there are more than 23 million craftspeople in India today engaged in the growth of Indian handicrafts industry. Few more details:

• Second largest employment sector in India, second only to Agriculture.
• More than 23 Million craftspeople.
• 63% of exports turnover.
• 9 items dominate exports of handicrafts.

These nine items which have extra edge over other products include art metal ware, wood ware, hand-printed textiles, hand-knotted and embroidered textiles, leather goods, stoneware, carpets and floor coverings.

Problems of Indian handicrafts
The mass-produced goods are steadily replacing utility items of daily use made by craftsmen.
Limited public awareness of the cost-effectiveness, functionality and range of craft products.
The urban consumer does not have access to many of the handicrafts products.
Crafts people are bound in their struggle for survival to money-lenders, traders or middlemen for credit and raw materials and they are obliged to sell their products to them at a minimal price decreasing their interest towards the traditional arts and crafts.
Women struggling to enter the economic mainstream should be encouraged to use craft to become wage earners, provided they are shown how to get access to the market.

Crafts Concentration Areas
A wide range of handicrafts are produced across the country. Though, its difficult to name a particular place for particular crafts, yet following places are listed for their particular crafts.

Crafts	Areas
Art Metalware	Moradabad, Sambhal, Aligarh, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Delhi, Rewari, Thanjavur, Madras, Mandap, Beedar, Kerala & Jagadhari, Jaiselmer
Wooden Crafts	Saharanpur, Nagina, Hoshiarpor, Srinagar, Amritsar, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jagdalpur, Bangalore, Mysore, Chennapatna, Madras, Kerala & Behrampur (WB)
Hand printed Textiles & Scarves	Amroha, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Farrukhabad, Sagru & Sanganer
Embroidered goods	Kutch (Gujarat), Jaisaimer, Baroda, Lucknow, Jodhpur, Agra, Amritsar, Kullu, Dharmshala / Chamba & Srinagar
Marble & Soft Stone Crafts	Agra, Madras, Baster, Jodhpur
Terracotta	Agra, Madras, Baster, Jodhpur
Zari & Zari Goods	Rajasthan, Madras, Baster
Imitation Jewellery	Delhi, Moradabad, Sambhal, Jaipur, Kohima (Tribal)
Artistic Leather Goods	lndore, Kolhapur, Shanti Niketan (WB)

Country-wise Exports of Handicrafts
Indian handicrafts products are exported worldwide. Art lovers of far off countries love have Indian handicrafts products.

Art Metalware	U.S.A., Germany, U.K. & Italy
Wooden Crafts	U.S.A., U.K., Germany & France
Hand printed Textiles & Scarves	U.S.A., U.K. , Germany & Canada
Embroidered goods	U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, U.K., Germany
Shawls as Art wares	Saudi Arabia, U.S.A. Japan & U.K
Zari & Zari Goods	U.K. U.S.A., Japan & Saudi Arabia
Imitation Jewellery	U.S.A., U.K., Saudi Arabia & Germany
Miscellaneous Handicrafts	U.S.A., Germany, U.K. & France

As the world is changing with a fast pace, craft products exported from India to various countries form a part of lifestyle products in international market.