Tool Kit Grant for Traditional Handicrafts Experts

What is the Tool Kit Grant for Traditional Handicrafts Experts?

Tool Kit Grant for Traditional Handicrafts Experts is a development scheme of the Backward Classes Development Department (BCDD), Government of Kerala. The department describes it in a single line: financial assistance to traditional craftsmen belonging to OBC for purchasing modern machinery.

The grant is a maximum of Rs 25,000, including training, and it is booked to head of account 2225-03-277-88 (Plan), a plan scheme, funded from the department's annual allocation, which is why it runs in notified rounds rather than continuously.

The problem the scheme addresses is straightforward. Kerala's traditional handicraft trades: wood carving, metal work, coir and cane craft, bell-metal and similar hereditary crafts, are still largely worked with hand tools, while competing products arrive from mechanised units. An artisan who cannot afford a Rs 15,000 or Rs 20,000 machine stays stuck at hand-tool output and hand-tool prices. The toolkit grant is meant to buy exactly that missing piece of equipment, and to pay for the training needed to use it.

BCDD runs the scheme from its directorate at Ayyankali Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram, through two regional offices. It sits in the department's development schemes group alongside the Viswakarma Pension, assistance to traditional pottery makers, the barbershop renovation grant, the advocate grant and the self-employment grant for professionals.

Who is eligible for the Tool Kit Grant?

The department states the eligibility condition as: candidates should belong to the state backward communities and should be doing traditional handicrafts. To that it attaches an income limit of Rs 1 lakh a year.

Read together, an applicant must:

• Belong to a community listed in Kerala's state OBC (backward classes) list, which BCDD publishes on its website, certified by the Village Officer.
• Be actually working in a traditional handicraft trade, not merely trained in one. The department looks for evidence from the local body or a recognised artisans' body.
• Have an annual family income of Rs 1 lakh or less, proved by a Village Officer's income certificate.
• Be a resident of Kerala with a bank account in their own name for the transfer.

Who cannot apply

• Applicants outside the state backward communities list are not eligible. Artisans in the general category, and Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe artisans, are covered by other departments. The Directorate of Industries and Commerce runs the Assistance Scheme for Handicrafts Artisans (ASHA) for handicraft enterprises, and the SC and ST development departments run their own equipment schemes.
• Applicants whose annual family income exceeds Rs 1 lakh are not eligible, however small the enterprise.
• Applicants who do not practise a traditional handicraft: traders, retailers and job workers in unrelated trades — are not eligible.
• Applicants who cannot produce a community certificate from the Village Officer will not clear verification.
• An applicant who has already received the same grant is normally excluded from a fresh round; the scheme is a one-time support.

How much does the scheme pay, and for what?

The ceiling is Rs 25,000 per beneficiary, inclusive of training. Within that limit the grant is used to buy modern tools and machinery for the applicant's own traditional trade. It is not a working-capital grant, not a loan subsidy and not a monthly allowance.

Because the money is tied to equipment, BCDD asks for a priced quotation with the application and publishes an agreement model which the selected beneficiary signs before release. The agreement binds the artisan to buy the equipment specified and to use it in the trade; the department may verify this afterwards.

Applicants who need a larger amount to set up or expand a handicraft unit should look at ASHA under the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, which gives a fixed capital grant of 40 per cent of investment up to Rs 3 lakh and a working capital grant of 40 per cent up to Rs 2 lakh for general category applicants, with higher rates for women, SC/ST, young entrepreneurs and differently abled applicants. The toolkit grant and ASHA serve different scales of need.

How to apply for the Tool Kit Grant

The toolkit grant is an offline scheme. There is no online submission portal for it on the BCDD e-services site.

1. Wait for the notification. BCDD invites applications for the toolkit grant in rounds. Check the Notifications and Application Forms pages under Downloads at bcdd.kerala.gov.in, or telephone the directorate on 0471 2727378.
2. Download the application form from the toolkit grant scheme page or the Application Forms section of the department's website.
3. Get your certificates, the community certificate and the income certificate from the Village Officer, and a certificate from your grama panchayat, municipality or artisans' body confirming that you work in the traditional craft.
4. Get a priced quotation from a dealer for the tools or machinery you propose to buy, and attach it. Vague descriptions without prices weaken the application.
5. Submit the completed form with all documents to your Regional Deputy Director. Applicants from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam submit to the Regional Deputy Director, Backward Classes Development Department, Civil Station, 2nd Floor, Kakkanad, Ernakulam – 682030. Applicants from Thrissur to Kasaragod submit to the Regional Deputy Director, Backward Classes Development Department, Civil Station, Kozhikode – 673020.
6. Watch the draft beneficiary list published region-wise on the scheme page, and file an objection with the Regional Deputy Director if your name is missing or wrongly excluded.
7. Sign the agreement in the department's model format when selected, and buy the equipment as specified.

How selection and payment work

The Regional Deputy Director scrutinises applications against the community, occupation and income conditions and prepares a regional draft list. BCDD publishes those draft lists; one for the Ernakulam region and one for the Kozhikode region, on the toolkit grant page. After objections are settled the list is finalised, beneficiaries execute the agreement, and the grant is transferred to the bank account given in the application.

Keep the purchase bill. Because the assistance is a tied grant with an agreement behind it, the department can call for proof that the sanctioned equipment was bought.

Why Tool Kit Grant applications get rejected

• Income certificate above Rs 1 lakh. This is the single most common failure, and it is on family income, not personal income.
• Community certificate missing or not matching an entry in the state OBC list.
• No evidence of practising the craft. A statement in the form is not enough; the department wants a certificate from the local body or an artisans' body.
• No quotation, or a quotation for equipment unrelated to the applicant's trade.
• Application sent to the wrong office. Files from Thrissur to Kasaragod sent to Kakkanad, or files from the southern districts sent to Kozhikode, lose time and can miss the closing date.
• Bank account problems, an account in a spouse's name, or a dormant account, which stall payment after selection.
• Applying outside the notified window.

Key dates

The scheme has no permanent open window. BCDD notifies a call, receives applications for a fixed period, publishes region-wise draft beneficiary lists and then disburses. Some scheme aggregators circulate specific last dates for the current year; treat only the notification published on bcdd.kerala.gov.in, or confirmed by the Regional Deputy Director, as authoritative.

Help and contact

Directorate of Backward Classes Development Department, Ayyankali Bhavan, 4th Floor, Kanakanagar, Vellayambalam, Kawdiar P.O., Thiruvananthapuram – 695003. Telephone 0471 2727378. Email bcddkerala@gmail.com. Regional offices: Regional Deputy Director, Civil Station, 2nd Floor, Kakkanad, Ernakulam – 682030, and Regional Deputy Director, Civil Station, Kozhikode – 673020. Grievances about selection or non-payment go first to the Regional Deputy Director and then to the Director; the department also answers applications under the Right to Information Act.