Kerala’s artisans—woodworkers, metalworkers, coir weavers, potters, handloom artists, jewellery craftsmen, boat-builders, leatherworkers, lacquer artists—carry centuries of skill that form the cultural DNA of the state. Yet most remain outside formal economic structures, invisible to financial systems and unprotected in moments of crisis. What artisans lack is not talent, but a technological bridge that brings them into the fold of social security, insurance, and predictable income support.

Kerala Vision 2047 imagines an artisan ecosystem where technology provides the safety net that tradition never did. To do this, the state must build a digital social-security backbone—a unified, data-driven platform that identifies artisans, verifies their work, tracks their earnings, and triggers benefits automatically.

This begins with a statewide Artisan Digital ID, built on Aadhaar authentication but layered with occupational data, cooperative membership, income history, and skill classification. Such an ID makes the artisan visible to the system. It removes the guesswork that has historically kept lakhs of traditional workers outside formal safety nets. The ability to universally enrol two lakh artisans in three years depends on this digital identity layer.

Technology also transforms pension delivery. A monthly artisan pension of ₹3,000 by 2027 requires more than a financial allocation—it requires a real-time beneficiary-management system. Pension eligibility must be dynamically verified through income data, contribution records, and periodic digital self-certification. Automated payouts through DBT, combined with mobile alerts and pension dashboards, reduce administrative overhead and eliminate leakages. In a world where welfare delivery increasingly depends on digital rails, pensions become a predictable, transparent, and traceable right.

Health insurance for all artisans similarly demands digital integration. Traditional insurance schemes often fail because beneficiaries are unaware, hospitals lack updated data, and claims remain stuck in paperwork. Kerala can solve this through a Health Stack for Artisans—a digital platform linking insurance cards, hospital networks, QR-coded artisan IDs, and cloud-based medical records. This ensures cashless treatment, automated claim verification through AI, and real-time fraud detection. Technology becomes the equaliser, ensuring that a potter in Kollam receives the same level of support as a goldsmith in Malappuram.

Accident cover up to ₹5 lakh—and especially the timely disbursal of claims—requires digital automation. Artisans working with machinery, kilns, chemicals, or boats face daily occupational risk. A smartphone-based claim filing interface, GPS-tagged workplace verification, and AI-driven incident assessment can compress the claims cycle from weeks to days. When accident insurance becomes frictionless, artisans gain not just safety but the confidence to pursue higher-value work.

The most transformative element is the minimum guaranteed annual income of ₹1.2 lakh. In an informal sector with wildly fluctuating earnings, this requires a robust technological framework for income estimation, contribution tracking, market-linkage monitoring, and automated top-ups. Blockchain-based income ledgers, GST-connected micro-transaction logs, and cooperative digital wallets can generate reliable earning profiles. Once the system identifies an income shortfall, an automated support mechanism can activate monthly top-ups—creating an income floor that stabilises household economics.

Technology also makes the income guarantee fiscally accountable. Real-time dashboards allow the state to track inflows and outflows, monitor clusters where incomes are low, and identify regions where market access is weakening. It turns the income guarantee into a data-driven policy instrument rather than a blanket subsidy.

Beyond direct benefits, the digital ecosystem strengthens artisans economically. E-commerce integration, digital catalogues, AI-driven product recommendations, virtual craft exhibitions, and partnerships with global marketplaces can lift artisan incomes without intermediaries. When the industry participates—through co-funded marketing platforms, QR-code product traceability, and quality-certification tech—the income guarantee becomes a joint enterprise rather than a state burden.

What emerges is a reconstruction of Kerala’s artisanal economy powered by technology:

• Digital IDs give artisans institutional visibility.

• Unified platforms guarantee pensions, insurance, and accident cover.

• Automated income top-ups stabilise livelihoods in real time.

• Smart dashboards ensure transparency and fiscal discipline.

• Industry-tech partnerships expand market access and income potential.

By 2047, Kerala can build one of India’s most sophisticated artisan social-security ecosystems—not through paperwork, but through a digital grid that makes welfare automatic, precise, and equitable.

Technology does not replace tradition; it protects it.
It ensures that Kerala’s artisans—guardians of centuries-old knowledge—enter the future with dignity, financial security, and digital empowerment.