Decline of handicrafts and cottage industries

Lack of artisans and craftsmen

Nature

The decline of handicrafts and cottage industries refers to the significant reduction in traditional, small-scale, home-based production of goods, often due to industrialization, globalization, and changing consumer preferences. This decline poses a problem as it leads to loss of cultural heritage, unemployment among skilled artisans, and erosion of local economies. Mass-produced goods often replace unique, handcrafted items, undermining traditional skills and community identities. Additionally, the weakening of these industries can increase rural-urban migration and contribute to social and economic disparities, making the preservation and revitalization of handicrafts and cottage industries a pressing concern.

Background

The decline of handicrafts and cottage industries emerged as a global concern during the 19th and 20th centuries, as industrialization and mass production displaced traditional artisanal livelihoods. Scholars and policymakers first recognized the problem through its socioeconomic impacts, notably in regions with rich craft traditions. Subsequent international studies and cultural preservation efforts highlighted the loss of heritage, skills, and local economies, prompting renewed attention to the vulnerability of these industries in the face of globalization and technological change.

Incidence

Artisan and cottage production provides employment for about 50 to 75% of the number employed in large-scale manufacturing in the developing countries, depending on the degree of industrialization. Craftsmen working in or out of small shops, or at home, as owners or employees, are thus outnumbered by up to two to one by factory workers.

Claim

Until the advent of the disrupting forces of technology, the village was the basic economic and cultural unit. Now its self-sufficiency has disappeared and it is dependent on the city, the nation and the outside world. Village industries, such as spinning and weaving, pottery, brassware, oil pressing , vegetable dyes, hand paper making and lacquer work have gone into abeyance as machine-made goods, such as aluminium ware, kerosene, textiles and synthetic dyes, take their place. A superfluidity of cheap manufactures has displaced the craftsman, and his hereditary skills are disappearing. The ecological balance has been disrupted and the sense of social solidarity, of esprit de corps, generated by the rapport between the farmer and his land, the craftsman and his craft, are disappearing too, leaving a mobile, restless and shiftless population. The family structure of the village has been transformed into a mob-like adjunct of the factory.

Counter-claim

Non-productive tribal and village economic activity has not declined enough in the face of the need for developing countries to enter and compete in the industrialized world. Clinging to traditional ways is an admission of defeat, a denial that the country is able to improve the living standards, literacy, health and security of its people.