Ukraine warfare robs India’s ‘Diamond City’ of its sheen; employees’ goals

By AFP

SURAT: Yogesh Zanzamera lays out his mattress on the ground of the manufacturing facility the place he works and lives, certainly one of round two million Indians sharpening diamonds in an business being hit exhausting by the Ukraine warfare.

The air reeking from the one bathroom for 35-40 individuals, circumstances at workshops like this in Gujarat state go away employees vulnerable to lung illness, deteriorating imaginative and prescient and different sicknesses.

But Zanzamera and others like him produce other extra quick worries: the faraway warfare in Europe and the ensuing sanctions on Russia, India’s largest provider of “rough” gems and a long-standing strategic ally.

“There are not enough diamonds. Because of that, there is not enough work,” Zanzamera, 44, informed AFP on the workshop, located up some dingy stairs in Surat the place he has labored since leaving college at 13.

“The war should end. Everybody’s livelihood depends on the war ending.”

His month-to-month pay packet of 20,000 rupees ($260) is already down 20-30 p.c, he says.

But he is likely one of the fortunate ones — the native commerce union estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 diamond employees in Surat have misplaced their jobs.

Rough instances

Originally based as a port metropolis on the mouth of the Tapi river, Surat earned a status because the “Diamond City of India” within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s.

Now, some 90 p.c of the world’s diamonds are minimize and polished within the bustling industrial metropolis and elsewhere within the western state of Gujarat.

Traders in Surat’s crowded Mahidharpura market overtly commerce diamonds value hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on the streets every day, carrying the valuable gems unfastened in paper wrappings.

“If it doesn’t go through Surat, a diamond is not a diamond,” stated Chirag Patel, CEO of Chirag Gems.

Russian mining giants like Alrosa historically accounted for over a 3rd of India’s tough diamonds, however provide has all however stopped due to Western sanctions.

For Chirag Gems, Russia was much more necessary, accounting for half the 900 “roughs” that his agency turns into dazzling gems that promote wherever from $150 to $150,000.

Using state-of-the-art scanning and laser-cutting machines, his manufacturing facility is best than most, with air-conditioning and exhaust methods defending employees from inhaling harmful mud.

But provide has shrunk to a tenth of what it was within the months since Western sanctions minimize Russia off from the SWIFT worldwide funds community in March.

“We are not getting goods from Russia because the payments system is stuck due to the war,” Patel, 32, informed AFP, saying he’s making an attempt to bridge the hole with provides from South Africa and Ghana.

Demand at Tiffany’s

The June-to-September marriage ceremony season within the United States is a vital interval for diamond exporters, Patel says.

The US accounted for greater than 40 p.c of India’s $24 billion exports of minimize and polished diamonds within the monetary 12 months to March, information from the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) exhibits.

But together with provide, merchants say demand from the United States and Europe, too, has nosedived in current months as firms like Signet, Tiffany & Co, Chopard and Pandora refuse to purchase diamonds sourced from Russia.

Workers like Dipak Prajapati have suffered the results. In May he misplaced a job in May that paid $320 a month to assist his household of six.

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“I called the company to ask when I could resume work, but they said they don’t have any work for me and told me to stay home,” the 37-year-old informed AFP.

“Sixty percent of the jobs in Surat run on diamonds. Diamonds are the biggest industry in Surat. I don’t know any work other than diamonds.”

His layoff comes shut on the heels of pandemic shutdowns.

“We didn’t get any salaries for six to eight months. We had to borrow money from all sides to survive and are still paying back those loans,” Prajapati stated.

The Gujarat Diamond Workers’ Union has requested Gujarat’s chief minister for a 10-billion-rupee ($128-million) reduction package deal for employees who’ve misplaced their jobs.

“We told him that if the situation does not improve in the coming days, our workers will be compelled to commit suicide,” union vice-president Bhavesh Tank stated.

“Surat has given the world so much,” Tank says. “Surat has scrubbed diamonds for the entire world but our diamond workers are now getting scrubbed.”

“We can only pray to God that the war will end. If the war does not end, we don’t know how bad things will get.”