Sri Lanka’s first ever insurance cover for its artisans and craftsmen will commence this March. The insurance scheme, initially proposed by President Maithripala Sirisena in 2017, has been a rallying cry by many local craftsmen for years. Meanwhile, the second national census of the country’s handlooms sector too is to be completed by March 2019.
“The handicrafts sector is one of the largest self-employment sectors in Sri Lanka,” said the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons & Cooperative Development Rishad Bathiudeen told the Shipa Abhimani 2018 Presidential Awards event at Battaramulla yesterday.
“I am pleased to say that for the first time in our handicrafts history, we are introducing Sri Lanka’s first insurance scheme for our crafts-people. This insurance was first proposed by President Maithripala Sirisena in 2017. We are investing Rs seven million for this scheme,” said Minister Bathiudeen, and added: “This scheme is called as Shilpa Suraksha and will cover 23,000 craftsmen by 2023. The first stage will be launched this March giving coverage to 5,000 craftsmen. We are also introducing new digital technology to Sri Lanka handlooms sector which closely works with handicrafts. We are planning to introduce nine hi-tech Jacquard handloom design machines to the nine provinces to upgrade this sector for the first time after many decades. I am also pleased to say that this March we will be completing our national handloom sector census. This is Sri Lanka’s second national handloom sector census since 1978. This will cover overall handloom sector. Also with Japan based International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) the government is now working on a project on the revival of traditional textiles and women’s handicrafts in North and Eastern Provinces. With such important initiatives I have no doubts that our craftsmen will have better market opportunities and a promising future.” Sri Lanka’s first artisan insurance scheme shields lives and accidents of craftspeople and not their product / vendor liabilities.
Chairperson of National Crafts Council Heshani Bogollagama said that Sri Lanka has an ancient heritage of creating crafts. “Making of crafts has been an ancient art form applied to most spheres of the daily lives of the people. Artisan products of Sri Lanka, contains within itself the incredibly rich philosophy of the country’s civilization, its culture, and its practices. By training craft-persons to think different, it was possible to meet world standards and enable our crafts to compete in world markets. This would also improve the economic condition of the craftsperson” said Chairperson Bogollagama.
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