Utility Based Handicrafts Award

What is the Utility Based Handicrafts Award?

Utility Based Handicrafts Award is one of seven artisan awards given by the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited, which trades as Poompuhar and functions under the Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. The award was introduced to encourage artisans to produce utility-based handicrafts; craft objects made to be used in everyday life rather than only to be looked at.

The distinction is the whole point of the award. Tamil Nadu's craft traditions produce a great deal of decorative work, and Poompuhar's other awards recognise mastery and heritage. This one deliberately rewards the artisan who takes a traditional skill: bronze casting, wood carving, palm leaf, bamboo, stone, brass, textile craft, and turns it into something a household will actually use.

How many are given. Poompuhar's own description of its artisan awards lists the Utility Based Handicrafts Award for 3 artisans, within a wider set:

Poompuhar notes that Tamil Nadu gives the highest number of awards to artisans of any state in the country each year.

What the award carries. Published accounts of the scheme state that the award consists of a cash prize of Rs 40,000, a 4 gram gold medal, one thamirapattiram and a certificate, given to 3 artisans at a cost of Rs 3.75 lakh every year. A thamirapattiram is an inscribed copper plate, the traditional form of a citation in Tamil practice. Because Poompuhar publishes the current year's terms in the award notification itself, an applicant should confirm the amount on that year's notification before relying on the figure.

Who is eligible for the Utility Based Handicrafts Award, and who is not eligible?

You can apply if:

• You are a handicraft artisan in Tamil Nadu who has made the entered product with your own hands.
• You hold a Poompuhar identity card. The application form's first field asks for the Poompuhar Identity Card No., so registration with the corporation as an artisan is the practical precondition.
• The product you enter is a utility-based handicraft — an object made by craft methods that has a real use.
• You can furnish an affidavit on Rs 100 stamp paper attested by a Notary Public in the format Poompuhar prescribes for the year.

You cannot apply if:

• You have already received this award. The application conditions state that artisans who have previously won should not participate again, and the affidavit records that declaration expressly.
• You are simultaneously applying for another Poompuhar award in the same year. The conditions require an artisan to apply for only one award in a year, and the affidavit names the other awards, Handicrafts Export Award, Team Production Award and the rest, that are not to be claimed at the same time.
• You submit after the last date. The 2026-27 form carried 30 July 2026 at 5.00 p.m., and the 2025-26 form carried 29 August 2025. Late applications are not eligible.
• Your entry is a decorative piece with no utility, which belongs in a different award category.
• You are not the maker. The award goes to the artisan, not to a trader or a showroom.

How to apply for the Utility Based Handicrafts Award

1. Register with Poompuhar as an artisan and obtain your Poompuhar identity card number. The application form begins with this field, and an application without it cannot be processed. Registration is done through the corporation and through its district offices.
2. Watch the awards notification page at tnhdc.poompuhar.com/award/. Poompuhar publishes the year's application forms and notices there, in Tamil and English, for all seven awards. The 2026-27 forms were published with a last date of 30 July 2026 and a subsequent circular extended the revised affidavit to 31 July 2026.
3. Download and fill the correct year's form. The Utility Based Award application asks for the artisan's identity card number, name, craft, address, details of the item entered and bank particulars.
4. Make the entry item. Prepare the utility-based handicraft you intend to submit, and photograph it clearly from several angles.
5. Execute the affidavit. Get the affidavit typed on Rs 100 stamp paper in Poompuhar's prescribed format and attested by a Notary Public, declaring that you have not previously received the award and are not claiming another Poompuhar award this year.
6. Assemble and submit. Attach the affidavit, photographs, Aadhaar, bank passbook copy and the item as required, and send or deliver the application to the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation, 759, Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002, before 5.00 p.m. on the last date.
7. Follow the selection. A selection committee assesses the entries and the corporation announces the awardees. Results and selection lists are published on the same notification page.

What documents are required?

What are the deadlines?

Poompuhar announces the awards together and extends them together, so the dates move as a block. The pattern over the last two cycles:

• 2026-27: application forms published for the Living Craft Treasure Award, Poompuhar State Award, Poompuhar District Craft Award, Utility Based Award, Handicrafts Export Award, Team Production Award and Gen Next Competition. The Utility Based Award form carried 30 July 2026, 5.00 p.m.; a circular extended the revised affidavit to 31 July 2026; the Poompuhar State Award was extended to 24 July 2026; and the Living Craft Treasure Award to 10 August 2026.
• 2025-26: the Utility Based Award form carried 29 August 2025, and the corporation then announced that submission of the Living Craft Treasure Award, Team Production Award, Utility Based Handicraft Award, Handicraft Export Award, Poompuhar District Craft Award and Gen Next Competition award was extended up to 10 September 2025.

Check tnhdc.poompuhar.com/award/ before assuming a date, because extensions are issued frequently and are published only there.

Why applications fail

• No Poompuhar identity card number. The form cannot be completed without it, and obtaining a card takes time, so register well before the award season.
• Affidavit in the wrong format or not notarised. Poompuhar issued a separate circular for a revised affidavit format for 2026-27 precisely because applications were coming in with defective affidavits.
• Applying for two awards in one year, which the conditions prohibit.
• A previous winner re-applying, which the affidavit is designed to catch.
• Entry not genuinely utility-based. A purely ornamental piece is judged in the wrong category and loses to a well-made usable object.
• Late submission, after 5.00 p.m. on the last date.

Where to ask and where to complain

• Corporation: Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited (Poompuhar), 759, Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002. Telephone 044-28521271, 28521325, 28521798 and 28525094; email info@poompuhar.com.
• Awards page: tnhdc.poompuhar.com/award/ for notifications, forms, extensions and selection lists.
• Poompuhar mobile app, which the corporation's award conditions refer to for artisan services.
• Department: the Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department, Government of Tamil Nadu.

There is no application fee beyond the cost of the Rs 100 stamp paper and the notary attestation, and no intermediary can secure an award. Selection rests with the committee constituted by the corporation.

How to check your Utility Based Handicrafts Award application status

There is no online tracking portal or application number for this award, so status checking works differently from a benefit scheme. An artisan finds out where their entry stands through these channels:

1. Watch the awards notification page. Poompuhar posts the selection list and the list of awardees for each year's cycle at tnhdc.poompuhar.com/award/, on the same page where the application forms were published. This is the primary place results appear, in both Tamil and English.
2. Check for a scrutiny or shortlist notice first. Before the final list, the corporation sometimes puts out a notice on affidavits or documents found incomplete during scrutiny, giving artisans a chance to correct them. An applicant who does not see their name on any interim notice should not assume rejection; the final selection list is the only definitive confirmation.
3. Call the corporation office directly. An artisan who has not seen an update on the notification page after the announced selection date can call Poompuhar at 044-28521271, 28521325, 28521798 or 28525094, or write to info@poompuhar.com, quoting their name, craft, Poompuhar identity card number and the year applied for.
4. Visit or write to the corporation office at 759, Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002, if a phone or email query does not resolve the matter, since the award file for a given year is held at this office and not with any district branch.
5. Watch for the award ceremony announcement. Selected artisans are informed ahead of the presentation ceremony where the cash prize, gold medal, thamirapattiram and certificate are given out; an artisan who receives no such communication after the selection list is published was not selected that year.

Because there is no login-based tracker, artisans who apply are better served by keeping a copy of their submitted form, affidavit and any acknowledgement given at the time of submission, since these are what the corporation's office will ask for when a status query is raised by phone or in person.