Gujarat’s Rs 70,000-crore diamond industry is seeing its worst crisis in years—at least 10 laid-off workers have killed themselves in Surat in the past fortnight
Kishore Koli joined a diamond polishing unit in Amreli, Saurashtra, five years ago and was thrilled with his monthly salary of Rs 8,000. His earnings meant a lot to his family of agricultural labourers. But when the shutters went down on his unit and Koli found himself out of job, the 22-year-old killed himself on January 7 this year.

A week before that, another laid-off worker, Mahesh Goyani, 36, committed suicide. Goyani had come to Surat seven years ago to work in a diamond polishing unit and soon brought his family from Amreli to the city. He found a place to stay and got his children into a good school. But when he returned to Surat after a Diwali break, he found his unit had shut down. Unable to pay his children’s school fees and his rent, he committed suicide on December 28.

These are not the only deaths in Gujarat’s diamond hub. In Surat alone, at least 10 laid-off workers are reported to have committed suicide in the past fortnight. Gujarat’s Rs 70,000-crore diamond industry is seeing its worst crisis in years. Its processing industry accounts for 72 per cent of the world’s share of processed diamonds and 80 per cent of India’s diamond exports come from the state. But with the export market taking a hit, the long shadow of gloom has spread across Surat and Saurashtra where 90 per cent of diamonds are processed.

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