Handloom and Handicraft Artisan Statistics India 2026: Women, Income and Exports

Last updated: 15 October 2026. Compiled by Vikash, co-founder of Vee Threads, a hand-embroidery studio run by women artisans in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. Every figure links to its official source. Free to cite with a link back to this page.

Quick answer: India's Fourth All India Handloom Census (2019-20) counted 35.22 lakh handloom weavers and allied workers, and more than 72% of them are women. Across handloom and handicrafts the government estimates 64.66 lakh artisans. Handicraft exports, excluding carpets, reached ₹33,122.79 crore in 2024-25. Income is the hard part: 67.1% of handloom households earned under ₹5,000 a month.

Key highlights

• The census recorded 31.45 lakh handloom households and 35.22 lakh workers (PIB backgrounder, National Handloom Day 2026).
• Women make up more than 72% of the handloom workforce, about 25.46 lakh people (same source). As of August 2025, the government put women at 71% of handloom weavers and 64% of all artisans (PIB, December 2025).
• Of 28.20 lakh looms, 25.30 lakh are in rural areas. Nearly nine in ten looms sit in villages.
• Handicraft exports (excluding hand-knotted carpets) rose from ₹20,082.53 crore in 2014-15 to ₹33,122.79 crore in 2024-25 (PIB).
• Embroidered and crocheted goods earned ₹4,350 crore in exports in 2024-25 (same source).
• The US takes close to 40% of India's handicraft exports, according to the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts.

Who India's artisans are

The income problem

Here's the number that should stop every buyer of "handmade". Two in three handloom households lived on less than ₹5,000 a month from all sources in 2019-20.

Craft skill isn't the bottleneck. Market access is. A weaver selling to a middleman captures a thin slice of the final price. That's the case for buying direct from the studio that makes the piece: fewer hands between the stitcher and the customer. Made-to-order helps too, because there's no unsold stock eating the margin.

Handicraft exports

Embroidery alone brought in ₹4,350 crore, roughly the same as all art metalware. And the buyer is concentrated. With about 40% of handicraft exports headed to the US, the 50% US tariff that took effect on 27 August 2025 hit artisan clusters hard, which is why EPCH lobbied the government for support that month.

Registration and support

Source: PIB December 2025 and PIB August 2026.

Where Vee Threads fits

We're a small part of these numbers. Our pieces are hand-embroidered by women artisans in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, in the same household-based model the census describes. Mansi runs the studio; I handle the digital side. Hand embroidery is slow work, and we'd rather show that than hide it.

Methodology and sources

Census figures come from the Fourth All India Handloom Census 2019-20, the most recent; the next round has not been published. Export figures are Ministry of Textiles and EPCH data. Percentages marked as ours are Vee Threads calculations.

• PIB backgrounder: National Handloom Day 2026
• PIB backgrounder: India's handicraft sector (December 2025)
• Rajya Sabha reply on women in handloom and handicrafts (March 2020)
• EPCH Craftcil, August 2025: US tariffs and handicraft exports
• Drishti IAS summary of handloom census income data

Vee Threads (2026). Handloom and Handicraft Artisan Statistics India 2026. https://veethreads.com/blogs/news/india-handloom-handicraft-artisan-statistics

<a href="https://veethreads.com/blogs/news/india-handloom-handicraft-artisan-statistics">India handloom and handicraft artisan statistics (Vee Threads)</a>

More in our fashion data series: Indian textile and apparel industry statistics, global apparel export statistics, cotton production statistics and textile waste statistics.

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