Striking down the livelihood of artisans

The indefinite strike by jewellers’ in the city has left Sheikh Aslam, a jewellery artisan, without work. Aslam’s deft fingers are credited with turning a raw bar of gold into a beautiful piece of jewellery. A class V drop out, who has been in the jewellery making business for over three decades now is fighting to keep his family afloat.

• A month-long strike by jewellers left artisans with no work in the peak wedding season
• Business worth lakhs of rupees is believed to be lost because of the strike

Aslam finds the going tough in this wedding season, when he would have otherwise been extremely busy, as most of the jewellery shops in the city downed their shutters. The jewellers’ are up in arms against the budget proposal to levy 1 per cent excise duty on jewellery. The strike, which began on March 2nd, has cast a dark shadow on the survival of jewellery artisans in the city.

Jewellery artisans do not have monthly earnings, as they are usually paid at piece rate. They usually happen to make a lot of money during March and April, as they get a lot of orders to make wedding ornaments. They receive orders to make mangalasutras, necklaces, ‘nalla poosalu’ and gold waist belts. Their daily income in March and April are usually around Rs 800 and it has been zero, now, thanks to the strike.

Aslam lamented that the ‘no-work’ situation, due to the strike, forced him to take a loan from a local moneylender. He said he earns at least Rs 10,000 on an average every month but could make only Rs 1,500 last month. The plight of Aslam is only a tip of the iceberg. Over 5,000 mazoori workers (jewellery artisans) in city are going through a similar condition.

Most of these skilled workers are uneducated but have inherited the profession from their forefathers. While the jewellery shop owners can sustain even if they close down their shops, the same is not true for artisans. Dhanala Srinivasa Rao, another mazoori worker said, “For us, no work means no money, as all we know is making jewellery. It is unfortunate that the strike coincided with the peak wedding season. March and April are usually very busy months for us.”

Many mazoori workers are seen without work in their small shops located in congested lanes of Besant Road. Raju, a jewellery artisan, recalled how busy he was last year, particularly in March. He reminisced, “I used to work late every night in March as orders used to pile up. I literally never had time in months of March and April.”

Even the small jewellery shops in Besant Road brought their shutters down to protest against the levy. Dhanala Srinivasa Rao, who is also the vice-president of State Swarnakara Sangham, said that city’s jewellers must have lost business worth lakhs of rupees due to the month-long strike.