Correlation between education and workmanship: A case study of Muslim artisans of Aligarh lock industry

India’s economic growth cannot be conceived in isolation of its household and tiny level industry such as the Aligarh lock industry. It is more so as the growth of India’s petty industrial units has not at par with the over all, rather rapid economic growth of the country and the artisans engaged in the household and tiny level units have also not been equally benefitted with the consequential profits.  The Muslims who constitute large number of artisan class have particularly been at a loss as they tend to excessively concentrate in the low-paying jobs, engage in artisanal sectors, or else serve as casual labour. Most of them are self-employed in low income artisan based works. Above all, they are educationally more backwards than their counterparts in other communities. Restrained further by over all security scenario all this goes to curtail their mobility. The present field based study that ascertains the status of Muslim artisans of Aligarh lock industry brings forth the fact that the artisans have been struggling hard for sustaining with the bare minimum of resources (income), yet aspiring to stick to the same hereditary profession. Availing of educational facilities is a far cry for them. Yet, they like to expose their children to formal education, even though it looks the least beneficial to them. This takes us to the next stage: how to improve their lot through educational means that could be geared to provide craft centred education to them all and educate them  in the art of marketing their product, a more profitable step for raising levels of income.