Utilizing the clay and water in order to give definite shapes for different purposes can be identified as the oldest craft known to human culture. The evidences of this pottery making can be traced from the Neolithic Era with the involvement of various types of traditional knowledge. The making of pottery is an important event of prehistoric past and marked the beginning of Neolithic revolution in human society. Its impact had largely revolutionized the colonization of human groups and found a new way of cultural tradition. In the present day, the pottery industry in India has been put forward as a major cottage industry in both small and big pottery concerns. In a predominantly rural country with a very low income and simple needs, pottery plays an important role. Besides providing employment to artisans, the sector offer job opportunities to non-artisans during slack seasons of agriculture and to other tertiary sector employees. The objective of the present paper is to study the characteristic features of the pottery industry in the study area, problems of development of the sector and suggest suitable policy measures for its development. This study attempted an analysis of pottery production in Srivaikundam village. In this study conclude that the pottery producers are fully satisfied in their profession. As the business environment has become more customers centric, maintaining proper relationship with customer is one of the key factors for the success of every business. To retain customers and attract new customers, innovation should be regular phenomena in business. The pottery producers too have to analysis their environment to make the business sustain and their survival. The present study shows that the pottery industry in the study area is suffering from irregular supply of raw materials, lack of working capital, obsolete technology, lack of diversification of products, competition from the organized sector, good marketing facilities, management problems and lack of research and development efforts etc. The Government and nongovernment initiatives can solve the problem and develop the industries at its best level.

Keywords: Cottage Industry; Employment; Artisans; Tertiary Sector; Traditional Pottery; Economic Empowerment.