Handicrafts go digital with Lak Shilpa

The National Crafts Council has set up an online store—Lak Shilpa, as a means of setting up an online marketplace for traditional Sri Lankan crafts. The project is a collaboration between the National Crafts Council and the Computer Science Society at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Accordingly, the online store is home to a whole range of products and offers worldwide shipping to anyone interested in Lankan handicrafts.

As per the website, “The main objective of Lak Shilpa website is to empower the craftsmen spread across Sri Lanka by giving the utmost worth and financial value that can be given nationally and internationally to their products as well as to elevate the pride of Sri Lankan handicrafts to the international level.”

Currently, Lak Shilpa hosts products in six different varieties. These include crafts based on vegetation (plants/trees), metal, animal parts, clothes, clay/sand/minerals, and mixed sources. You can find everything from bamboo pen holders, ceramic water bottles, to batik shirts.

With regards to payments, you can either do cash on delivery or online payments via ICTA’s Lanka Government Payment Service. It’s basically a payment gateway for Visa and Mastercard payments. Though it would be ideal if more payment options are made available, particularly considering the recent push for contactless payments like LankaQR. Additionally, if the customer base extends beyond the Lankan market, more payment options would come in handy.

Efforts to grow the handicrafts industry

Lak Shilpa comes as the latest effort by the National Crafts Council to promote and build the handicrafts industry on the island. The past few have seen the council make moves to revive via various mechanisms. One was the craft village development program that created three craft villages for 125 beneficiaries in 2016. One year later, the project expanded to serve 249 beneficiaries.

Another project, dubbed Shilpa Saviya operates as a program to train entrepreneurs in the handicrafts industry. According to NCC Chairperson Heshani Sathis Bogollagama, by Shilpa Saviya 2017 many crafters “had got buyers, some started their own showrooms while others had gone online selling their products on Facebook, Instagram, and so on, which they were completely unaware of before”.

Now, with the Lak Shilpa website crafters registered under the National Crafts Council, could potentially promote their handicraft products with minimal barriers. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how much further this initiative will grow once the platform becomes accessible to more crafters.   

Lak Shilpa: A cautiously optimistic sign?

We often bring the conversation around how digital projects are mismanaged. So, seeing industries like handicrafts brought to modern times is encouraging. Yes, it’s neither a novel nor a revolutionary idea. Besides, Laksala existed for decades and it already has a website that functions as an eCommerce platform.

But in a country with failing national digital services, the Lak Shilpa website comes as a breath of fresh air. Additionally, it’s a direction that needs to be pushed with hopes of enabling craft-based communities with much-needed access to the digital market space.