146
S
tate
of
I
ndia
’
s
L
ivelihoods
R
eport
2015
The issues of manufacturing sector
employment in the organised sector are no
doubt important but not within the scope of
the kind of livelihoods that are a part of this
Report. The kind of livelihoods that we seek
to cover relate to informal and unorganised
sector livelihoods in the rural areas as well
as in the urban areas. In terms of identified
sectors inwhich attempts have beenmade by
the government to improve the livelihoods,
handloom, handicrafts, village industries
and small enterprises are the ones that catch
attention.
The handloom and handicraft sector
is looked after by the Ministry of Textiles.
The khadi and village industries are looked
after by the Ministry of Micro, Small &
Medium Enterprises (MSME). There are
some overlaps between handloom and
handicrafts, especially in case of carpets and
zari
work. Similarly, there are also overlaps
between khadi and village industries (KVIs)
and handloom and handicrafts in several
artisanal products. KVI is the description
of an enterprise form whereas handloom
and handicrafts could be in enterprise form
or just wage labour. The number of people
employed in these three sectors is estimated
at 35 million.
While the Development Commissioner
of Handicrafts and Handlooms looks at
sustaining the artisans’ and craftsmen’s
livelihoods through improving their skills
and providing linkages, KVIC—with the
support of KVIB—is helping rural enter-
prises develop in those sub-sectors where
there is potential. The nature and contents of
support programmes thus differ. However,
in capacity building of the persons involved
and marketing their products, different
agencies have similar interventions.
Handicrafts
“Handicraft can be defined, which is made by
hand; should have some artistic value; they
may or may not have functional utility
.”
The handicrafts sector is reportedly the
second highest non-agricultural livelihood
sustaining sector in terms of self-employ-
ment. The estimated employment as per
the 12th Five-Year Plan Task Force in
handicrafts was 9.8 million in 2014–15,
rising to 12.3 million in the year 2016–17
(Table 7.4). In case of handicrafts mostly,
people have been pursuing their traditional
skills passed on from generation to genera-
tion. The major activities in handicrafts are
under different materials such as wood,
metal, leather, natural fibre, coir, stone,
terracotta, horn- and-bone-utilising artisa-
nal skills such as carving, casting, painting,
stitching, embroidery, zari work, spinning,
weaving, twisting, pottery and carpentry.
The Development Commissioner of
Handicrafts identified a list of 32 handicraft
categories (Table 7.5).
Current data on the number of people
employed in each category of handicraft is
not available. No recent surveys/census of
handicraft households and workers has been
made in the recent past. The last survey was
carried out in 1995–96 by National Council
of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
Some estimates of artisans working under
some categories was made in a monograph
released by theMadras School of Economics.
These estimates are in Table 7.6.
Men dominate the handicrafts’ sector. In
some categories such as stone and leather,
no women craftsmen are seen (Table 7.6).
Table 7.4:
People employed in handloom,
handicrafts and KVIs
Sectors
No. of people
employed
(millions)
Handloom (2009–10)
4.3
Handicrafts
9.8
Khadi and Village Industries
(2013–14)
21.2
Total
35.3
Source:
Handlooms from Census Data of 2009–10.
Notes:
No updates to this are available. Handicrafts
employment is estimated by the Taskforce on
Handlooms set up by the Planning Commission. The
KVIs data is as per the KVIC Annual Report 2013–14.
The data is likely to err on the side of excess on account
of overlap between the three categories.
