Diamond production in Surat down by 21%

Owners and workers differ on their view about job losses though they both agree that there is a downturn in the industry as compared to the previous year's production.

New Delhi, Jan 24: Diamond production in Surat, one of the largest diamond producers in the world, has gone down. This has affected the diamond workers adversely whose situation is already bad due to inflation and the overall decline in the exports of gems and jewellery. Around 10,000 people working in the sector have lost their jobs in the last few months because of cuts in production and the closure of small units.

Surat Diamond Workers Union has requested the government to strictly enforce labour laws in the diamond sector. The diamond industry should be covered under the Factories Act, which provides workers with facilities like ESI, provident fund, fixed hours and other social and health security benefits, said union president Ramesh Jilariya. The union is upset over the fact that diamond workers don't have social security because they aren't registered as employees and don't get pay stubs or file income tax returns. This means that they don't get other benefits either, he explained.

Unions differ over job cuts

Vijay Mangukia, regional chairman of the Gems & Jewellery Promotion Council, said that imports from the US and other countries dropped by 18% during the busiest part of the Christmas season. This is why production is down by 20 to 21%. Data shows that in December 2022, the country exported finished diamonds stood at $2,356.7 million, which was 18.9% less than what it exported in December 2021 that stood at $2,905 million.

Though Mangukia admits that this means the production units had to cut back out, he doesn't agree that thousands of workers are out of work due to this. Workers aren't being laid off to cut production, he claimed. Instead, the units have cut workers' hours from 12 to 10 or 8 hours a day and given them two weeks off instead of one, Mangukia sought to explain.

Similarly, Nanubhai Vekariya, president of Surat Diamond Association, too claimed that no diamond unit has been shut down in the last two or three months. But some people are making too much of a fuss about the recession whereas the industry is working at full capacity, Vekariya claimed and informed that 7 lakh people are working in 3,000 units in Surat.

Jilariya, however, countered this saying that workers cut and polished fewer diamonds because their hours were cut and they had more time off every week. Since their pay depends on how many pieces they make and how well they do, these changes are bad for the workers. And this is happening apart from retrenchments, Jilariya asserted.