Khadi Sales Touch Record Rs 1.87 Lakh Crore in 2025-26

A PIB backgrounder issued on 13 October 2026 set out how far the khadi and village industries sector has travelled, from a spinning wheel in a village to a spread of rural enterprises making honey, herbal goods, banana fibre and cloth. At the middle of that change sits the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory body created under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act, 1956. The Act asks it to plan, promote, organise and assist village industries, and to take care of their training, raw material, marketing, research and quality needs.

A record year for sales

Goods made by khadi and village industries sold for Rs 1.87 lakh crore in 2025-26, the highest figure the sector has ever posted, counted up to May 2026. Set against 2013-14, sales are higher by 501 per cent, while output has grown 380 per cent to Rs 1,25,296 crore. Jobs in the sector are up 56 per cent and now stand at 2.04 crore.

What the artisan earns

Pay at the wheel has moved with the sector. A spinner received Rs 4 per hank in 2013-14 and now gets Rs 15 per hank, a gain of close to 275 per cent. One hank runs to 840 yards of yarn and weighs a pound. Of the nearly five lakh artisans in khadi, more than 80 per cent are women.

Training and tools

The commission keeps a network of 35 departmental and non-departmental training centres, which teach trades as varied as bakery, beekeeping, agarbatti and candle making and motor repair. In 2025-26 its programmes trained 79,682 people, among them 47,382 women, or about 59 per cent of all trainees. The Gramodyog Vikas Yojana put 37,769 machines, toolkits and pieces of equipment into artisans' hands during the same year, carrying the scheme's running total beyond 3.23 lakh.

The schemes behind the figures

Through KVIC, the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) has opened work for nearly 97.95 lakh people since March 2008. The Khadi Vikas Yojana, by way of its Modified Market Development Assistance, released Rs 245 crore to 1,097 khadi institutions in 2024-25 and so reached 1,45,484 artisans. Institutions that qualify can borrow at a concessional 4 per cent a year under the Interest Subsidy Eligibility Certificate (ISEC) scheme, and the Workshed Scheme, which pays for better production space, helped 1,309 artisans in 2025-26 up to December 2025.

Where khadi is sold

Apart from the online Khadi India store, KVIC runs 8 departmental sales outlets and 15 branches, and khadi institutions work another 8,035 outlets around the country. The Khadi Mahotsav, held each year from 2 October to 31 October, turns young buyers towards khadi and Vocal for Local. The fabric itself has been put on show at New Zealand Fashion Week 2026 and Lakme Fashion Week 2025.