International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

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Sustaining Livelihoods: A Qualitative Study Of Gendered Pathways In Craft-Based Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurship In Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Author(s) Mr. Vikas Yadav, Ms. Ervin Batra, Ms. Paridhi Jain, Ms. Isha Yadav
Country India
Abstract Cultural heritage in India operates not merely as a symbolic repository of
collective identity but as an active economic domain that sustains livelihoods
across millions of artisan households. Despite the sector's considerable scale
encompassing an estimated 64.66 lakh artisans, 318 geographically indicated
products, and approximately 455 classified craft categories, heritage-based
enterprises remain peripheral within mainstream entrepreneurship scholarship,
which has historically privileged formal, growth-oriented, and institutionally
embedded forms of enterprise. More significantly, the gendered dimensions of
craft-based heritage entrepreneurship have received insufficient scholarly
attention. This study proposes a qualitative, cross-sectional exploration of
cultural heritage entrepreneurship in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, with a specific focus
on how gender structures entrepreneurial pathways, mediates access to resources
and markets, and shapes livelihood outcomes for craft-based producers. Drawing
on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirty heritage entrepreneurs
—comprising fifteen women and fifteen men—the research examines how individuals
mobilise inherited cultural practices as economic resources, how they negotiate
the competing demands of tradition, household responsibilities, and market
engagement, and how gendered social structures produce differential experiences
of ownership, decision-making, and economic recognition. The study adopts an
interpretivist orientation and an exploratory design. By integrating perspectives
from management and entrepreneurship studies, gender scholarship, and development
literature, this research contributes to a theorisation of cultural heritage
entrepreneurship as a gendered economic practice embedded within informal
economies. The findings advance entrepreneurship theory by foregrounding informal
and heritage-based enterprises as legitimate analytical objects, contribute to
gender studies by illuminating the invisible dimensions of women's labour within
family enterprises, and inform policy discourse by identifying persistent gaps
between institutional support mechanisms and the lived realities of artisan
communities.
Keywords Cultural heritage entrepreneurship, gender and crafts, informal economy, women artisans, Rajasthan, qualitative research, livelihood sustainability
Field Business Administration
Published In Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On 2026-08-08
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84550
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