Take our crafts out of the Gov cottage

India has always had a superb array of artisanal products. But its marketplace remains woefully stuck in a time warp and outside the realm of value chains. This has been due to the lingering notion that 'handicrafts' are less a product of individual talent and more about being part of some grand national identity. This show of 'socialistic largesse' does no favour to either craftspersons, or consumers who should have made this market flourish.

A new Institute for Human Development-Crafts Council of India study, 'Economics of Indian Craft', drives this truth home. Covering handicraft enterprises across Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UP and West Bengal, it found that artisans earned, on average, barely ₹7,000 a month - well below minimum-wage benchmarks. Equally revealing is the finding that state-backed melas and exhibitions have only a marginal impact on sales and incomes. Most artisans continue to depend on contractors, intermediaries and local markets.

Indian crafts need to break out of its 'cottage industry' mindset and state-curated hovel-bubble. What artisans, like artists, need is not perpetual state protection but access - to markets, capital, technology and IP. The state should move away from being a PSU promoter of crafts manning emporiums and other white elephants, and, instead, confine itself to being a facilitator of market linkages and help through policy measures. Marketing and selling these creations should be the realm of the private sector, with the craftsperson as the main character in this business sector. For a major economy still without a global brand to speak of, empowering artisans is not merely about preserving heritage but about unlocking economic value. And bringing real wealth to creators of astonishing art.