THE WEEK Heritage Awards 2026: Keeping heritage alive by empowering India’s artisans for sustainable livelihoods

India's traditional crafts and handloom products need to move beyond their identity as heritage items and become premium and globally aspirational products, while ensuring sustainable livelihoods for the artisans who make them, speakers said during a discussion on empowering India's craft sector.

Padmini Singla, joint secretary, fibre, Union Ministry of Textiles, said the Centre had set an ambition of reaching $10 billion by 2030-31 and was working on several fronts to achieve it.

She said building consumer trust was one of the key priorities, particularly in ensuring that customers could identify genuine handloom products. “If a customer buys a handloom product, he should be sure that it is a handloom product. Therefore, it has a handloom mark,” she said.

Through export promotion councils, the ministry was also taking artisans to international markets and helping their products reach the right buyers. “Our overall purpose is to see that it doesn't remain only as heritage, but becomes a premium, global, aspirational product,” Singla said.

Shikha Ajmera who helms brand Shikha Karigari said artisans wanted recognition for their work and that traditional crafts needed to be presented in ways that encouraged people to explore them. She said Indians often found ways around challenges through jugaad, but the craft sector also needed to move beyond its apprehensions and explore new opportunities.

Citing Udaipur Palace as an example, she asked why visitors should not also explore Chitrakar Gali and similar places where traditional artists work. She also pointed to the role of digitisation in making artisans' products accessible to wider audiences. She said there was a need to recognise such places and the work being done by artisans through tourism-related initiatives.

Padmarani Seela, chief marketing and communication officer at the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority, said craft heritage was an important part of tourism and that digital marketing could help artisans reach global audiences. She said tourists today were increasingly interested in understanding the story behind a piece of art rather than simply seeing the finished product.

“Gone are the days when people visited just to see a piece of art. They want to know the whole story, appreciate it and understand the product,” she said.

Seela said tourism initiatives could create experiences around crafts by involving local communities and using storytelling to help visitors understand the traditions, processes and people behind the products.

Risha Roy, associate professor at the School of Design and lead for sustainable fashion and textile design, Anant National University, co-lead transdisciplinary Design, said there was a significant gap in people's understanding of the work that goes into traditional crafts.

She said a single craft product could pass through more than a dozen processes before it was completed, but consumers often remained unaware of the labour and skills involved. Roy suggested promoting craft trails and traditional practices through initiatives such as “meet the maker”, allowing consumers to understand who made a product and how it was created.

She also emphasised the importance of authenticating handmade products and recognising the individual marks of artisans, which could add value to their work. Roy said young people needed to be introduced to traditional crafts and helped understand the wider ecosystem that sustains them.

Kishan Singh Ghughtyal, head of department and joint director at the National Jute Board, Union Ministry of Textiles, said the textile sector was the India's second most employment generator, providing work to around 4.5 crore people.

He said the scale of India's population and its demand for clothing offered opportunities across price ranges, from affordable garments to premium products.

Referring to exports, Ghughtyal said the handloom sector's exports were around ₹2,500 crore, and the aim was to raise them to ₹10,000 crore. He added that efforts were being made to increase recognition of Indian handloom products and attract international buyers.

The discussion highlighted the need to combine market access, consumer awareness, tourism, digital outreach and recognition of artisans' skills to help traditional crafts remain economically viable while preserving their heritage.