FAMILY MISFORTUNES
Nine-months-pregnant Neelam Zapalia, 20, of Hadanagar, is struggling to hold on to life. On July 6, her husband, 21-year-old Vijay, a worker at the Jewel Star diamond-polishing unit in Bhavnagar, was shot dead by a security guard during a workers’ agitation. “I have to go back to the factory and begin polishing diamonds again,” she says. The couple hails from Jamwadi village in the Limbdi taluka of Surendranagar.
Vijay’s father, 45-year-old Arjan, has turned almost blind after working under strenuous conditions at polishing units for over 25 years. Now his younger son, 16-year-old Suraj, has taken up the same occupation. “My father had 100 bighas of land and five sons. I got my share of 20 bighas, which was not enough to support my family. I started working as a diamond polisher and my children have taken after me,” says Arjan, who moved to Bhavnagar 30 years ago.
Diamond workers were initially lured into the industry as it promised better wages than other occupations, but now they have to struggle to make ends meet. Together, the Zapalia couple earned about Rs 5,000-6,000 per month, drawing a daily wage of Rs 75-100 each. The family could never earn enough to build a house or even send the children to school. Vijay had to abandon his studies after class VI to join his father at work, and now, after he is no more, Neelam is not sure if their firstborn will ever sit in a classroom.

SURAT: STRIKING A BALANCE
Babubhai Jirawala, president of the Surat Diamond Workers Association, says the only way the diamond-polishing industry can be sustained is by striking a balance between the interests of the owners and that of the workers. The association has 47,000 registered members. Jirawala recalls the time when wages were very good and workers saved enough to build homes and send money to their villages. Even though wages are relatively high in Surat and working conditions have perceptibly improved over the years—with big factories introducing facilities like schools for the children of the workers—it is no longer easy to be a diamond worker. Many factories have shut down and their owners have switched to the textile or real estate sector. “There is no denying that it is getting increasingly difficult for workers to survive in the current conditions,” says Jirawala.
Jivraj Surani alias Dharukawala, one of Surat’s diamond barons, who runs seven factories employing 10,000 workers, says the US economic slump is a big reason behind the current recession. The global diamond and jewellery business is strongly linked to the US market, he says. Dharukawala, who used to own a small unit called J.B. Diamonds, now has offices in 18 countries and travels in his 26-seater executive jet to look after his Rs 1,300-crore business. His is a story interlinked with that of the industry in boom time. A class-V dropout, Dharukawala came to Surat from a Bhavnagar village as a diamond worker earning Rs 300 per month. After a year he set up his own manufacturing unit and since then there has been no looking back. Now he says government policies and systems should ensure the interests of both diamond manufacturers and workers are protected. The lakhs of workers who are struggling to make ends meet would certainly agree.