Indian Handmade Portal

In News

• The Ministry of Textiles has developed an E-Commerce portal for the handicrafts and handloom sector.

About the Portal

• It is an authentic Indian handloom & handicraft virtual store where artisans/weavers will be directly connected to the buyers through a common platform.
• Diverse variety of authentic sellers can register over this portal, namely, artisans, weavers, producer companies, SHGs cooperative societies etc.
• It offers a wide range of products, including clothing, home decor, jewellery, accessories, and more. 
• There will be a safe and secure, multiple payment gateways for smooth transaction experience.
• Free handholding of sellers from registration till order fulfillment to ensure “ease of doing business.”

Indian Handloom Industry

• Handloom refers to the process of weaving cloth using a manually operated loom.
• Handloom weaving is one of the largest economic activities after agriculture providing direct and indirect employment to 35.23 lakh weavers and allied workers. 
• This sector contributes nearly 15% of the cloth production in the country and also contributes to the export earnings of the country. 95% of the world’s hand-woven fabric comes from India.

• The sector employs 43.31 lakh weavers directly and indirectly throughout the country with 77% of them being women. 
• Almost every state of India has a unique handloom product to offer such as Jacquard from Uttar Pradesh, Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, Phulkar from Punjab, Brocade from Benares and Daccai from West Bengal.

Indian  Handicrafts Industry

• Handicrafts are items made by skilled artisans using traditional techniques.
• India produces woodware, artmetal wares, hand printed textiles, embroidered goods, zari goods, imitation jewellery, sculptures, pottery, glassware, attars, agarbattis, etc. 
• The Handicraft industry in India is dominated by female artisans with over 56% of the total artisan. 
• The country has 744 handicraft clusters employing nearly 212,000 artisans and offering over 35,000 products. Surat, Bareilly, Varanasi, Agra, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chennai, and Mumbai are among the major clusters. 
• India is one of the largest handicrafts exporting countries and a clear leader in the homemade carpet segment both in terms of volume and value. 

The major handicraft export destinations for India are USA, the UK, LAC, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, the UAE and Switzerland. 

Source: PIB