Global economic slow-down has reached home. Gujarat’s diamond cutting and polishing industry is the latest one to get affected by it. An industry which employs nearly one million –largely contractual wage based – workers is witnessing the worst recession ever. Many diamond polishing and cutting units are closed for more than two months; the ones that are open are operating for fewer hours with far fewer workers on board and that too with lower wages.
While recession has been hitting many sectors, the case of diamond polishing industry poses some serious repercussions because of its human-intensive nature and rural-urban linkages.
According to various estimates nearly 1 to 1.5 million workers and their families are dependent on diamond industry in the city of Surat. As is evident from the census statistics that indicates decadal growth of 93 per cent from 1981-91 and 60 per cent from 1991-2001, these workers are mostly migrants with their roots in agriculture mainly from the draught-prone villages of Saurashtra region. These young less-educated men found respite from the uncertain agriculture output in the form of diamond polishing work that required very little skills and virtually no education. Over the years, diamond industry of Surat grew and provided employment to youth who came to Surat in search of work and urban amenities. The booming diamond and textile industry yielded Surat a distinction of being a city with highest annual household income in India; the average annual household income (AHI) in the diamond city is Rs 4.57 lakh was found to be almost equal to China's per capita income of 2007 and double the national per capita income.
However, the industry seems to be largely unregulated and does not follow labour laws as specified under factories Act. According to a newspaper report published in 2005, “only 431 of over 10,000 diamond units in the state of Gujarat have been registered under the Factories Act”. The very nature of contractual wages rendered these thousands of workers vulnerable to the fluctuations in their income from time to time depending on the supply of the rough diamonds and demand of the polished ones. This rise and fall in wages resulted in virtual stagnation in per unit wages of the diamond workers over many years. A recent report from Wall Street Journal indicates that workers have started to move out of the Surat industry because of lesser revenues; it estimates that nearly one third of total workers have quit in last three years. With the demand for higher wages not being heard and increasing inflation in the beginning of 2008, an agitation of diamond workers begin at many places during the middle of this year. There were reports of violent protest of these workers and also of causalities including death of one worker in Bhavnagar. The stir has reaped rewards in terms of a 20% salary raise, their first in almost a decade.
There have been quite a few discourses around labour welfare and workplace conditions of diamond polishing units. Despite having fairly decent wages, the workers in diamond industry remains unorganized and are devoid of any form of social security measures including provident fund or insurance. While some large units have modernized their units, by and large majority of units work in dimly lit and congested rooms. Given that wages are piece-based, the workers tend to work more than stipulated hours, which have led to many occupational hazards. According to a study on the social security of the workers in the industry, there is significant presence of work-related ailments like TB, lung and stomach diseases, joint pains, eye sores and minor injuries.
HIV also came to Surat, which has the potential of its speared because of the migrant-based local industries. Increasing access to money, accompanied with single migration has been fuelling the demand of commercial sex work in Surat. According to an estimate, there are around 5000 commercial sex workers operating in Surat. Needless to say there is high prevalence of STIs, including HIV among these sex workers. As is evident by a study on migrants of Surat, sexual networks among migrant workers goes beyond commercial sex work; the study indicates fair presence of sexual relationship among multiple partners with negligible use of condoms. In terms of HIV prevalence, Surat remains ‘category A’ district indicating higher prevalence of virus among general population. It also has significantly high presence of virus among the high risk groups, including men who have sex with men. The virus also brought with it a series of interventions, including provision of ARV treatment by public as well as non-governmental organizations.
The diamond industry goes for a vacation during a local festival Diwali every year; thousands of workers with their families traveled back to their villages in Saurasthra to enjoy festival and then returns back immediately after that. This year was different though.
Since the diamond industry has strong linkages outside India, especially with their counterparts in the United States, the global financial crisis and the recession in the US has hit the domestic industry very hard. Being an export-driven economy, the fall in demand of diamonds has resulted in negligible exports. With early signs of meltdown in European and US economy, the Diwali vacation was called for a two week in advance with the hope that the situation may improve. However, this did not happen and many of the thousands of diamond units in the city remain closed even after vacation. According to an estimate, over 200,000 workers have already been laid off from jobs in the diamond sector. Some estimates put the toll of laid off workers at more than 600,000.
Many of these young men are back to their villages with their families since without work at hand, they cannot afford to live the way they used to in cities like Surat and Ahmedabad. This catastrophic loss of regular income has started to show its impact; the first and the most soft target being children, many of whom has been dropped out of schools. A newspaper report suggested that “Around 1,500 School Leaving Certificates (SLC) were issued to parents by the municipal schools in Varachha (an area in Surat) after Diwali. Besides, about 2,000 SLCs were given by different aided and non-aided schools in the area”. Physical migration back to native village and inability to pay the fees can be seen as reasons for these huge dropouts.
Significant impact of the recession is also emerging in terms of increasing cases of depression and suicides among the unemployed youths. During last fortnight, as many as nine cases of suicides have been reported from Surat city alone. Suicides are not new to the city as it has been witnessing sharp rise in reported cases of suicides since 2004; The NCRB statistics indicate that reported cases of suicides in Surat has increased by 46% from 332 in 2004 to 485 in 2007. A report in 2005 indicated strong linkages between increasing rate of suicides in Surat with economic deprivation. The recent news of spurt in suicides cases seems to be echoing what was indicated more than three years ago. There is also news from Saurashtra, where in two distinct cases, ex-diamond workers were found to be involved in petty crimes indicating emergence of serious repercussions of persisting un-employment.
The influx of depressed, unemployed, and relatively unskilled workers to villages with already low development and employment opportunities poses serious risks of many kinds.
While depression, suicides and school dropouts are being visible now, a more hidden effect of this return-migration could be on the course of spreading of HIV. The workers who have been benefiting from the series of interventions in cities are now away from the reach of NGOs at their destinations. The newspaper report indicates that the average client load of sex workers has gone down in Surat. While this may look good in terms of lesser avenues of high-risk behaviour, the same report suggests that less access to paid sex may lead to increased incidences of extramarital relationships and rapes. It may seem that incidences of high risk behaviour and thus potential cases of HIV may reduce because of the return of these thousands of workers to their native, but in a wider perspective; it poses serious threat of spread at their destination in absence of strong prevention interventions.
There is also a possibility of increased spread of virus at the origin sites i.e. rural Saurashtra. With very low level of awareness of HIV and STI (DLHS 3 provisional indicators), rural Gujarati women tend to be at higher risk of infection. With their men unemployed, depressed and with potentially altered lifestyles, the vulnerability of women in rural Saurashtra deepens. While it may not be possible to validate it statistically, there seems higher possibility of increasing incidences of HIV in the time to come in these rural parts of Gujarat.
For individuals who are already on treatment, while depression and anxiety may lead to non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), reduced income may also mean excess burden of transport and nutritional expenses, which in turn affects the adherence. With possibility of lower condom use in villages, this may lead to increasing incidence of spread of resistant virus.
Gujarat stands as a moderate prevalence state in terms of HIV. With the unprecedented return-migration of diamond workers, it remain to be seen what impact the ‘recession’ can take on the course of epidemic in Gujarat in the time to come.
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