India does not have one clearly defined statistical category called handmade products. The sector is spread across handicrafts, handlooms, carpets, village industries, tribal products, products made by self-help groups, handmade jewellery, natural-fibre goods, artisanal food products and craft-based fashion. Therefore, any single market-size estimate should be treated cautiously.
The most reliable comparable indicator is handicraft exports. Exports of handicrafts excluding hand-knotted carpets increased from ₹20,082.53 crore in 2014–15 to ₹33,122.79 crore in 2024–25. This represents cumulative growth of about 65 per cent and an annual compound growth rate of approximately 5.1 per cent in rupee terms. In FY2024–25, handicraft exports were valued at roughly US$3.89 billion.
This is growth, but not yet transformation.
A sector employing millions of people, carrying centuries of cultural knowledge and supplying products to global home, lifestyle, fashion and gift markets should arguably have expanded much faster. Once inflation, exchange-rate movements and rising material costs are considered, the real increase in artisan production and income may be much smaller than the export figures suggest.
The growth paradox
India possesses almost every ingredient needed to become the world’s leading handmade economy: an enormous diversity of skills, low-volume production capability, cultural authenticity, natural materials, regional identities, a large artisan base and an expanding global interest in sustainable and traceable products.
Yet India continues to sell a significant share of its handmade products as anonymous merchandise.
The object may be made in India, but the customer relationship, design ownership, brand value, retail margin and market information are frequently controlled elsewhere. An artisan may receive the smallest part of the final price even though craftsmanship is the product’s central source of value.
This is the basic contradiction of the sector. India is rich in making but weak in market ownership.
Growth has also been uneven. Export-ready manufacturers and organised craft enterprises can participate in fairs, meet buyers, manage compliance and supply large orders. Individual artisans and small producer groups frequently struggle with product photography, packaging, price calculation, barcoding, cataloguing, digital advertising, customer service, working capital and timely delivery.
The market is expanding, but access to that market remains highly unequal.
What marketing facilities does the government provide?
Government assistance is not insignificant. It operates through several ministries, programmes and institutions.
Under the Ministry of Textiles, support includes domestic marketing events, Gandhi Shilp Bazars, exhibitions, fashion shows, buyer-seller meetings, reverse buyer-seller meetings, international fairs, craft exposure programmes and virtual marketing events. EPCH organises major trade platforms, including the India Handicrafts and Gifts Fair, and provides export information, market studies and international promotion support.
Handloom and artisan entities are also being connected with Government e-Marketplace. As of July 2026, the government reported that 6,865 weavers or handloom entities had been onboarded on GeM, while 143 marketing events had been organised and several Urban Haats were operating in Uttar Pradesh.
Under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, products made by women’s self-help groups are promoted through SARAS Aajeevika Melas, the SARAS Collection on GeM, the eSARAS platform and partnerships with Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho and JioMart. eSARAS has also been connected with ONDC.
Other support mechanisms include Geographical Indication registration, India Handloom Brand, Handicrafts Mark, design development, artisan identity cards, cluster development, training, toolkits, credit support, packaging assistance and schemes such as PM Vishwakarma.
These facilities create visibility and some transaction opportunities. However, visibility should not be confused with a complete marketing system.
The Kunj: important infrastructure, but not yet a national strategy
The Kunj was inaugurated in New Delhi on 21 August 2025. It was developed by the Office of the Development Commissioner Handicrafts as a flagship retail and cultural destination for Indian handicrafts and handlooms. Its concept combines curated retail, exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops, cultural activity and contemporary presentation.
The Kunj is strategically important because it tries to change the visual language of Indian craft. Instead of presenting handmade products only in temporary stalls or crowded fairs, it places them in an organised, design-led and premium environment.
That change is necessary. Presentation influences price perception. A product displayed as a souvenir receives one price. The same product, documented, curated and presented as collectible design may receive a completely different price.
But a critical distinction must be made: The Kunj is a marketing asset; it is not yet a marketing architecture.
A flagship centre in Delhi can serve tourists, diplomats, designers, urban consumers and institutional buyers. It cannot by itself solve the market problems of artisans in Kutch, Kinnaur, Bhagalpur, Kutch, Kashmir, Odisha, the Northeast, Tamil Nadu or central India.
Its success should therefore not be assessed primarily by visitor numbers, inaugurations or the beauty of the premises. It should be evaluated through measurable economic outcomes:
- value of annual sales;
- number of repeat customers;
- export orders generated;
- proportion of the retail price reaching producers;
- number of artisans graduating into independent brands;
- average order size;
- repeat purchase rate;
- product rejection rate;
- women artisans’ income growth;
- number of institutional and international buyers acquired.
Without these indicators, The Kunj risks becoming an elegant showroom surrounded by an unchanged production system.
The weakness of the existing government approach
Much of the current system is organised around events. Artisans are taken to a fair, given a stall, exposed to customers and then expected to manage the rest.
This event-centred model produces episodic sales rather than permanent market access.
A fair may generate revenue for ten days. An effective marketing system must generate orders for twelve months. It must collect customer data, maintain inventories, analyse which products are selling, arrange repeat production, manage logistics, settle payments and help producers improve future collections.
The second weakness is that assistance is often scheme-led rather than market-led. Government agencies may count the number of artisans trained, exhibitions organised, stalls allocated or products uploaded. The market, however, asks different questions: Was the product relevant? Was the quality consistent? Was it delivered on time? Did the customer reorder? Was the price competitive? Could production be scaled without destroying authenticity?
The third problem is platform fragmentation. An artisan may be listed on GeM, ONDC, eSARAS or a private marketplace but receive few orders. Digital onboarding is only the opening of a door. It does not guarantee that buyers will enter.
Successful e-commerce requires search optimisation, professional images, reviews, advertising, fulfilment, returns management, multilingual customer support and continuous catalogue renewal. Most artisan groups cannot manage these functions individually.
The fourth problem is the absence of demand intelligence. Production is frequently based on inherited designs, government training modules or what sold in the previous exhibition. There is limited real-time information on changing colours, sizes, home-interior trends, gifting seasons, sustainability claims, overseas regulations or consumer price bands.
India continues to produce first and search for the customer later. Modern marketing begins with the customer and works backward towards design and production.
A precise long-term marketing strategy for handmade products
India requires a ten-year Handmade India Market Development Mission. It should not be another subsidy programme. It should be a commercially managed market-building system connecting artisans, designers, exporters, retailers, hotels, architects, e-commerce platforms and overseas distributors.
Phase One: 2026–2028 — Build the market foundation
The first task should be to create a reliable national database of craft enterprises, not merely artisans. It should record productive capacity, skills, materials, monthly output, quality level, certifications, digital readiness, current buyers and potential markets.
Products must then be divided into clear commercial segments:
- Affordable everyday handmade products
- Contemporary home and lifestyle products
- Corporate and institutional gifts
- Sustainable fashion and accessories
- Premium heritage products
- Collectible art and luxury craft
- Tourism and destination merchandise
- Architectural and hospitality applications
One product should not be pushed simultaneously into every market. A ₹500 basket, a ₹5,000 lamp and a ₹2 lakh art object need completely different buyers, channels, packaging and narratives.
During this phase, common market-service centres should be established in major craft clusters. These centres should provide photography, digital cataloguing, packaging, labelling, barcode generation, export documentation, quality testing and order management on a paid but subsidised basis.
Government funding should shift from paying mainly for stalls to paying for market readiness.
Phase Two: 2028–2031 — Move from exhibitions to permanent channels
The Kunj should become the headquarters of a wider network rather than remain an isolated destination.
A hub-and-spoke structure could connect it with regional craft centres in Jaipur, Varanasi, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and other major production regions.
Each regional hub should act as:
- a permanent showroom;
- a sampling and buyer centre;
- a design laboratory;
- an order-consolidation facility;
- an export help desk;
- a content-production studio;
- a warehouse for fast-moving products.
India should also create shop-in-shop arrangements in airports, premium hotels, museums, railway stations, convention centres and major Indian diplomatic missions abroad. These should operate under uniform quality and merchandising standards rather than as unrelated souvenir counters.
Public procurement should become an anchor market. Government departments, public enterprises, universities and diplomatic missions spend heavily on gifts, furnishings, conference materials and interiors. A defined proportion could be sourced from verified handmade enterprises, provided quality, pricing and delivery standards are met.
Phase Three: 2031–2036 — Build global Indian craft brands
India should stop expecting every artisan to become an exporter. That is neither practical nor economically efficient.
The better model is to develop professionally managed producer enterprises and market intermediaries that remain accountable to artisans. These organisations should aggregate production, handle design, maintain quality and negotiate with retailers while ensuring transparent producer payments.
Export strategy should be market-specific.
For the United States, the focus could be home décor, ethical lifestyle products, festive merchandise and designer collaborations.
For Europe, greater emphasis should be placed on traceability, natural materials, circularity, product safety and low-carbon production.
For Japan, the strategy should emphasise precision, minimal design, natural textures, small-batch quality and excellent packaging.
For the Gulf region, opportunities exist in luxury gifting, hospitality interiors, wedding markets and customised décor.
For Africa and Southeast Asia, affordable handmade lifestyle products, institutional furnishing and craft-to-craft collaborations may be more relevant than luxury positioning.
Market diversification is important because excessive dependence on a few traditional destinations leaves artisans vulnerable to recessions, freight shocks, tariffs and changing consumer preferences.
The Kunj should become a market laboratory
The Kunj can play a far larger role than retailing finished products.
Every sale should generate data. The system should record who purchased, what price was accepted, which colours and materials moved fastest, which products were handled but not purchased, and which items produced repeat orders.
This information should flow back to designers and producers.
The Kunj should also operate seasonal product laboratories. Every six months, selected artisans, designers, architects, retailers and international buyers could jointly develop collections for specific markets such as hotel interiors, sustainable gifting, modern apartments, children’s products or premium fashion accessories.
A buyer-in-residence programme could invite international retailers and designers to spend time in Indian clusters. A craft incubator could help selected producer groups build independent brands. An export gallery could display market-compliant collections with prices, capacities, lead times and certification information.
In this form, The Kunj would become an institution for demand discovery, not simply a building for product display.
Digital strategy: one backend, many storefronts
India does not necessarily need another standalone craft website. It needs a shared digital commerce infrastructure.
A common backend should allow products to be sold simultaneously through The Kunj, ONDC, GeM, eSARAS, private marketplaces, museum stores and international retailers. Inventory, product descriptions, artisan information, pricing and orders should be synchronised.
Each product should carry a digital passport accessible through a QR code. It could show:
- maker or producer group;
- geographical origin;
- material composition;
- process used;
- approximate production time;
- care instructions;
- authenticity certification;
- environmental attributes;
- producer payment principles.
However, storytelling must remain credible. The sector should avoid turning poverty into a marketing device. Customers should buy Indian handmade products because they are useful, beautiful, durable and culturally meaningful, not because they feel temporary sympathy for the producer.
Product development must precede promotion
A major part of what is described as a marketing problem is actually a product problem.
Some handmade products are visually attractive but too fragile for shipping. Some have inconsistent dimensions. Some use colours unsuitable for target markets. Some lack care instructions. Some packaging costs more than the item. Others cannot be replenished in commercially viable quantities.
Before promotion, every product should pass four tests:
Market relevance: Does a defined customer need it?
Commercial viability: Can it generate an adequate producer margin after packaging, logistics and commissions?
Reproducibility: Can quality be maintained across repeat orders?
Cultural integrity: Can adaptation occur without erasing the identity and knowledge of the craft?
Design intervention must not reduce all Indian crafts to the same urban minimalist appearance. Modernisation should expand the language of a craft, not remove its regional character.
Pricing and artisan income
India cannot build a serious handmade economy by keeping prices artificially low.
Cheap craft often means unpaid family labour, underpriced skills, poor material quality and no provision for product development. Yet simply increasing the retail price does not guarantee that artisans receive more.
Every supported marketing channel should disclose a transparent value chain: producer payment, aggregation cost, logistics, marketing expense, retailer margin and taxes. This would allow government programmes to track whether market expansion is actually improving artisan incomes.
The central performance indicator should be net income per working day of the artisan, not only total sales generated by the scheme.
The government’s stated ambition to raise women artisans’ monthly incomes to ₹15,000–20,000 is meaningful, but it will require regular orders, higher productivity and stronger producer bargaining power—not occasional exhibitions alone.
Market outreach targets
A serious national mission should establish measurable targets for 2030 and 2035.
By 2030, India could reasonably aim to:
- double handicraft exports from the 2024–25 base;
- ensure that at least half of supported artisan enterprises receive repeat orders;
- create 100 professionally managed cluster brands;
- connect major craft clusters with common fulfilment and market-service centres;
- achieve substantial procurement from hotels, institutions and government buyers;
- build reliable sales data across physical and digital channels.
By 2035, the goal should move beyond export turnover. India should seek global leadership in sustainable handmade lifestyle products, with Indian-owned brands controlling a greater share of design, distribution and retail value.
The final critical perspective
The future of Indian handmade products will not be secured merely by preserving old techniques. It will be secured by making those techniques economically relevant to new generations.
India has spent decades supporting production, training artisans and organising fairs. The next stage must be about controlling markets, data, brands, distribution and customer relationships.
The Kunj is a welcome beginning because it gives handmade products dignity, space and contemporary presentation. But its real value will emerge only when it becomes the visible front end of a much larger invisible system: market intelligence, cluster-level services, digital infrastructure, product development, transparent pricing, institutional procurement and global distribution.
India does not suffer from a shortage of crafts. It suffers from a shortage of organised pathways between craftsmanship and purchasing power.
The national strategy should therefore move:
from stalls to channels,
from schemes to enterprises,
from stories to verified value,
from isolated artisans to market-linked producer systems,
and from Made in India to Designed, Branded and Valued by India.
That is how handmade products can move from cultural survival to sustained economic growth.
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