E COMMERCE AND RURAL HANDICRAFT ARTISANS
India is a country of great cultural heritage and India's cultural diversity provides plenty of remarkable art and craft products. Handicraft industry uses conventional manual methods instead of advanced technology for making various items. It is an unorganized, decentralized, labour intensive cottage industry. Though handicraft industry employs millions of artisans, It is still miniscule with respect to the global industry. This scenario is changing with the advent of E commerce initiatives at government as well as at private or individual level. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the role of E commerce in the development of rural artisans in India by illustrating some efforts of Government and Non Government agencies, Groups and Individuals in uplifting the socio economic standard of the rural artisans through E commerce. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats/Challenges faced or to be faced by rural handicraft artisans adopting E commerce have also been analyzed in this paper. Key words: Handicrafts, E Commerce, Rural Artisans, Rural Development, SWOT Analysis Policy