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Diamond units regain lustre but artisans lose hope

On December 29, a 32-year-old, debt-ridden, unemployed diamond polisher of Gujarat’s Rajkot town, unable to eke out a living, strangulated his four-year-old only son to death.

Last week, 15,000 angry diamond workers of Ahmedabad, rendered jobless after their factories were forcibly closed down by municipal bosses for some illegal constructions, threatened to break open the official seals before they were calmed by local politicians.
Earlier this week, a diamond artisans’ organisation announced plans to produce a docudrama on ‘exploitation’ of low-paid labourers in Surat which produces 80 per cent of the world’s sparklers, and show it around to people and organisations who matter.
Though the Rs800-billion diamond processing industry is fast regaining the lustre it lost in the last two years of global recession, the above developments make it crystal clear that its one million nimble-fingered cutters and polishers toiling in the state’s 10,000 units are down in the dumps.
The newly-formed, 10,000-strong, Surat-based Diamond Polishers’ Association (DPA) has demanded a hike in wages to the tune of about 35 per cent in its recent representation made to the Surat Diamond Association.
The DPA has also asked for facilities for diamond unit workers as laid out in the Factory Act, including Rs100,000 insurance benefits and up to 50 per cent contribution by the factory owner towards medical expenses in the case of serious illness of a worker.
According to DPA president Hasmukh Moradia, when skilled workers are in demand, diamond unit owners give them bonus for a few months and then withdraw the same when the situation returns to normal.
If DPA general secretary Mukesh Virani is to be believed, there has been no real hike in wages, adding that minimum wages for diamond workers in Surat used to be around Rs8,000 a month before 2008.
But after the meltdown hit the world, this was scaled down to an average of Rs5,000 as global demand for polished diamonds dipped. Since then, the demand has normalised but diamond workers are still paid Rs8,000 a month ignoring inflation.
In 2008, the massive economic downturn had forced closure of 6,000 of the state’s 10,000 diamond cutting-and-polishing units what with an increasing number of the owners, saddled with huge quantities of unsold polished and rough diamonds, declaring themselves bankrupt.
The result was that as many as one million of the 1.4-million dextrous artisans were thrown out of jobs in Gujarat which accounts for 72 per cent of the world’s processed diamonds and 80 per cent of India’s diamond exports.
With the Narendra Modi regime and the central administration also winking at their plight, at least 80 laid-off labourers and their family members, who earlier rolled in luxury with a Rs15,000 monthly income, had committed suicide while others had taken to crime to keep the wolf from the door.
“If the diamond cutters and polishers continue to get a raw deal, there will be a repetition of the dire situation that prevailed in 2008 when a frustrated artisan ended his life almost every third day,” said Gordhan Zadafia, former BJP minister and founder of the Mahagujarat Janta Party, who himself is a diamond merchant.
No wonder, at least 50 per cent of labourers from Bihar who worked in diamond units in Surat, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Palanpur, Rajkot, Navsari and Junagadh for more than 20 years have gone back to their home state which now offers better job opportunities.
Also, most of the artisans who had shifted to the embroidery business after they were sacked during the recession find their current wages higher than those paid by diamond units. But despite shortage of labour — 50,000 urgently needed — owners of diamond processors are coining money.
The sale of diamond jewellery in the US, the largest consumer of the precious stones, and other markets has been seeing a significant rise as compared to the last two years, bringing smiles on the faces of diamantaires.
Compared to 2009, the exports have grown by about 25 per cent. As far as trading is concerned, there has been 50 to 60 per cent increase in 2010 compared to the previous year.
The launching of the world’s largest diamond bourse, Bharat Diamond Bourse, in Mumbai has also pleased the 2.5 million people directly or indirectly associated with the diamond industry. “If the government rationalises the transaction taxes on par with that in trading hubs such as Dubai, Belgium or Israel, India holds a good chance to be an international trading hub too,” Zadafia told this columnist.
But the cutting and polishing of diamonds will get back to pre-recession times only when at least 15 per cent of the 400,000 skilled workers who had left the processing units return to work and bring back production to earlier levels.
mahesh@khaleejtimes.com
 

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