Status of Women Artisans in Chikan Embroidery Industry of Lucknow: A Study of Reorganisation under Innovative Group Entrepreneurship and Skill Upgradation

The present paper aims to focus attention on the status of female artisans engaged in the chikan industry of Lucknow. Our investigation led us to our findings relating to their extreme poverty and to the uncongenial conditions at the workplace which is either the work centre or their homes. Almost all of them are drawn from the lower class Muslim family background marked by illiteracy and superstitions. They are exploited by the work providers who are either contractors or the middlemen who bring them work from the wholesale business managers of their products. There exist no social or economic security provisions for them because their work falls in the unorganised sector. But they are in fact contributors to the local and regional economy of the state of Uttar Pradesh, though their access to better knowledge, skills, resources, opportunities and power still remains rather low. Only that would enable them to fully realise their potential and capability.