Gujarat: suicide prevention hotline for diamond workers in distress
Some 90 per cent of the world's rough diamonds are cut and polished in India, but the industry has been in a severe crisis for the past two years due to the drop in Chinese demand and the Gaza and Ukraine wars. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs while another 65 have committed suicide in less than two years. After a local union set up a helpline, it received more than 1,600 distress calls in a month.
Surat (AsiaNews) – In less than a month, more than 1,600 Indians employed in the diamond industry turned to a suicide help line, while at least 65 workers have taken their own lives in the last 16 months due to growing economic difficulties, this according to Bhavesh Tank, vice president of the Diamond Workers Union Gujarat (DWUG).
The crisis began with the drop in demand from China, getting worse with the Russo-Ukrainian and Israel-Gaza wars.
In the city of Surat, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, 90 per cent of the world's rough diamonds are cut and polished, employing about a million workers, but at least 50,000 have been laid off in the past year, Bhavesh Tank said.
Many of those still employed have suffered pay cuts, ranging from 20 to 40 per cent. “I used to earn 30,000 Indian rupees (US$ 360) a month, but now I’m down to around 15,000 (US 0)," said Hari, a 35-year-old worker.
This is the first time in 50 years that the diamond industry has been hit by a prolonged slump.
Until two years ago, China bought about a third of India's cut and polished diamond exports. But the slowdown in China’s economy, shifting habits among Chinese customers (who now prefer gold jewelry), and a decline in weddings have led to a reduction in demand.
Indian exports fell by 15 per cent in the last quarter, but data released in April for the 2023-24 fiscal year had already shown a 27.5 per cent decline in Indian exports.
The situation has been complicated by the difficulty in importing rough stones from Russia (whose costs are increasingly high), and of reselling the finished product to one of India's main trading partners, Israel.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia was the world's leading producer of rough diamonds. One third arrived in Surat through purchases from Alrosa, the mining company owned by the Russian government, which later came under sanctions.
Similarly, before the war in Gaza, the diamond trade between India and Israel was worth US$ 1.5 billion a year, or half of the total trade between the two countries.
But already in April 2023, months before the 7 October attack by Hamas that started the war in Gaza, Indian exports had dropped by 38.9 per cent over the same month in 2022.
As the industry suffers, Indian workers pay the consequences. Most diamond workers say they could not pay rent, children's school fees, or debts.
“We launched a suicide helpline number on July 15,” said DWUG’s vice president. Many of those who call say that they “are on the brink of ending their lives due to financial stress. Most of those who call have been rendered jobless in the last few months. They also call in distress looking for employment,” Bhavesh Tank added.
Meanwhile, the owners of some of Surat's largest companies began to provide some support. “After surveying the financial status of the families seeking financial assistance, they were given cheques” worth “15,000 [rupees] each for school fees,” reads a statement by Dharmanandan Diamonds, a leading firm.
For its part, the Diamond Workers Union Gujarat handed out food rations to a hundred families.
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16/11/2020 13:50
