Crafting a Better Future: How Women's Handicrafts Promote Economic Growth and Gender Equality

Written by Chahna Ahuja

The handicraft industry is India’s second-largest income-generating sector after agriculture. Despite the exponential multidecadal growth of handicraft exports in this creative economy, the industry primarily remains decentralized and informal. Thus, most artists and artisans engage with handicraft clusters from their homes and native regions.

According to the Ministry of Textiles report in 2018, women constitute 70% of the workforce in this sector, predominantly participating in the various stages of craft production processes.

Kumaoni weavers, Chikankari needlework, Kanyakumari bamboo baskets, Rajasthani Zari work, Meenakari, Madhubani wall paintings, and Bhil paintings are all examples of art and crafts practiced by?women?homeworkers from their villages or local craft hubs for small-scale and large-scale enterprises.?

In the patriarchal society we live in, the freedom to work has been continually oppressed by the caste system and gendered division of labor. Women’s employment through the crafts sector does help in dismantling the shackles that rob them of their freedom to work.

In that case, the handicraft industry can be claimed as an ongoing endeavor to strive for social equality in Indian society. Economically empowering women does not just help extend individual agency but it also nurtures women’s education, healthcare, self-reliance, self-esteem, creative expression, and self-awareness about the current social climate.

Additionally, the booming industry is a home-grown rural enterprise that contributes to social and economic stability in rural areas. It dissolves the frustration that comes with disguised unemployment in the agriculture sector and persistent unemployment augmented by India’s shift from the primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sectors.

The decentralization of income opportunities in agricultural-driven rural areas of India also reduces mass migrations to urban cities. It maintains the collective consciousness of artistic communities, which is fundamental for the continuity of traditional and tribal arts. Subsequently, this also prevents the cultural identity crisis of the traditional generational artists practicing folk and tribal philosophies outside mainstream religious beliefs.?

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