ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND LIVELIHOOD RESILIENCE IN JAMMU & KASHMIRS HANDICRAFT AND HANDLOOM MICRO-ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL FIELD ASSESSMENT

The paper aims to explore environmental sustainability practices, waste-management behaviour and livelihood conditions of the handicraft and handloom micro-enterprises in the region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which are identified as priority and eco-friendly industries for sustainability in the region. The study is based on a stratified random sub-sample of 100 households out of a primary field survey of 1,007 artisan and farm households and examines raw-material sourcing, waste generation and disposal, compliance with the Pollution Control Board, access to credit, insurance and government schemes, workforce structure, wages, women participation, skill training and market channels. Findings indicate that though 99% of the sampled units are getting the raw material to a great extent from within J&K, there is still a significant percentage (28%) of units without any proper waste management system, disposing off the waste mainly through burning or dumping which is unregulated, and just 4% of the units have any treatment plant in-house. Financial exclusion (32% report significant credit difficulty; 58% have no insurance cover), and low wages (61% of skilled artisans earn less than ₹5,000 per month) coexist with high utilisation of government schemes (91%), suggesting that there is not a lot of gaps in access; there is a gap in implementation. The paper ends with policy recommendations focusing on the waste infrastructure at the cluster level, bundling credit with insurance and linking skill training to income.