×
221
Fashion Jobs
CORPORATE MANPOWER
Requirement - Operations Manager
Permanent · Kolkata
DR LAL PATHLABS
Area Sales Manager - Vijayawada
Permanent · Vijayawada
SNAPSEAARCH
sr Production Manager For Hyderabad _api
Permanent · Hyderabad
ALLEGIS GROUP
Opening For Sales Manager - Chennai
Permanent · Chennai
GOODWEAR FASHIONS
Fresh Trainee Customer Service
Permanent · NEW DELHI
ADIDAS
Manager HR
Permanent · BENGALURU
SV MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
dy. Manager/ Shift in Charge - Production - Indore
Permanent · Indore
UNISON INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING
Garment Technician
Permanent · National Capital Region
WAYCOOL FOODS AND PRODUCTS
Area Sales Manager/ Sales Officer
Permanent · Chennai
VAMSHA RETAIL VENTURES
Foor Manager - Retail Garment Showroom
Permanent · Mayiladuthurai
VAMSHA RETAIL VENTURES
Branch Manager - Retail Garment Showroom
Permanent · Mayiladuthurai
HERITAGE FOODS
Required Area Sales Manager - Vijayawada @ Heritage Foods Ltd
Permanent · Vijayawada
RASHMI GROUP MUMBAI
Sales Managers/ Executives (Real Estate) Location: Vasai
Permanent · Mumbai
DTDC EXPRESS
Sales Manager
Permanent · National Capital Region
RJCUBE STAFFING SOLUTIONS
Senior Garment Technician For Buying House, Noida Sector 59
Permanent · Noida
HIRING PLUS HR SOLUTION
Icici / Sales Manager / Home Loan ,
Permanent · Vadodara
TALENT CORNER HR SERVICES
Production Manager
Permanent · Bhiwandi
ABS HR SOLUTIONS
Asst. Manager Forecasting, Merchandising &Scm For Beauty Brand(Gurgaon
Permanent · National Capital Region
MANPOWERGROUP SERVICES INDIA
Unit Sales Manager-Field
Permanent · Chennai
SUPER PLAS WASTE MANAGEMENT LIMITED
Production Manager
Permanent · National Capital Region
AFT RECRUITERS
Hiring For Ecommerce Manager For Apparel Company, Jaipur
Permanent · Jaipur
INDUSIND BANK
Area Sales Manager - Loan Against Property
Permanent · Chennai
By
AFP
Published
Mar 29, 2009
Reading time
3 minutes
Share
Download
Download the article
Print
Click here to print
Text size
aA+ aA-

Diamonds lose their lustre, forcing layoffs in India

By
AFP
Published
Mar 29, 2009

NEW DELHI, March 29, 2009 (AFP) - India's diamond industry has shed 50 percent of its labour force as export orders dry up with the global financial crisis crippling demand for precious stones, trade officials say.



Eight out of 10 of the world's diamonds are processed in the busy trading city of Surat where diamond cutters work round the clock sorting, cutting and polishing stones to meet export orders from Europe and the United States.

But the biggest global economic slump in decades has forced mass layoffs in Surat's multi-billion-dollar diamond trade that employed about a million workers directly or indirectly before the crisis hit.

"Diamonds aren't a necessity," said Rohit Mehta of the Surat Diamond Association, a body that oversees the diamond trade in this city in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

"They're a luxury and the first thing people stop buying when times get tough," Mehta added.

Some 500,000 workers in the trade have been laid off and half of the 5,000 processing units have shut down as demand has plunged amid a wider slump in India's exports, according to the Gujarat Hira Bourse, a diamond exchange.

Mehta, of the Surat Diamond Association, gave a similar estimate of the numbers laid off, adding that "another 50,000 skilled diamond cutters are expected to be laid off if we find no new markets to sell our diamonds."

"I was 14 when my father started teaching me how to hold a diamond and cut it in a way that it shines from all sides. All my life, I worked hard and mastered the art, said 45-year-old diamond cutter Ramveer Dharan.

"Now I clean a diamond merchant's car and ensure it shines from all sides too," Dharan told AFP by telephone.

Since 1960, the port city of Surat has been renowned as a low-cost hub for processing rough diamonds imported from African nations, Australia, Russia and more recently from Dubai.

The gems are turned into dazzling stones using imported laser machinery by migrant craftsmen often working in dim and shabby units in narrow back streets.

More than 90 percent of these diamonds are exported, while the rest are purchased by Indian jewellery retailers.

"Everything was perfect until September 2008" when the usual Christmas orders came in, said Param Patel of Evershine Diamonds, a Surat diamond export firm.

"People were buying and there was a steady flow of income but suddenly orders started declining and now they've vanished," he said.

In March, Patel was forced to shut down four of his six diamond processing units which employed 4,000 workers when exports were humming. He had to ask many of his craftsmen and 750 of his labourers to leave.

"The diamond business runs on trust," said Patel. "Our employees are like our family members. It's painful to ask them to go."

Many of the unemployed workers are heading back to their villages -- some say they have received help from their employers to do so.

But others have stayed in the city to work as household servants or tea stall vendors to support their families.

The Surat Diamond Workers' Association, which claims 100,000 members, has asked the government for assistance.

"With elections round the corner, politicians come to meet us but no one promises us employment and money," said association secretary Ramnik Santosh.

India goes to the polls in general elections that kick off in April.

"The diamond merchants never gave us a fixed salary, job security or insurance," Santosh said. "In good times they paid us and now in tough times they're throwing us out." by Rupam Jain Nair

Copyright © 2023 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.