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The Indian gems and jewellery industry is grappling with the shortage of skilled designers and craftsmen. Its craftsmen are aging, and it is unable to attract the younger generation.
The industry had relied on members of the same family taking up the profession. But the youth now prefer to work for other sectors such as software and manufacturing.
There are about 70 lakh people working in the gems and jewellery trade — excluding retail, but the concern is the aging population — between 45 and 65 years — of craftsmen or designers who find it difficult to learn technology, according to Mr C. Vinod Hayagriv, Chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.
The industry — both manufacturing and retail — needs 12,000-15,000 people every year, while the availability is less than 2,000, he said.
Most of the jewellery manufacturing facilities are still in the unorganised sector with less than 10 employees, and units of over 500 do not exist. “Living in Bengaluru, I could not set up a centre with 200 local people, and needed to bring people from locations such as Kolkata or Mumbai. Recently, we relocated nearly 700 people from Nasik,” he told Business Line .
Requirement
In the organised sector, factories located in Kolkata, Coimbatore, Surat, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Karwar require around 7,000 skilled personnel every year. This means, around 10,000 people should be trained every year, but only 1,000 come out from institutes like the Indian Institute of Jewellery in Mumbai.
India is a high consuming market for gold and diamond jewellery — the latter growing at 19 per cent a year while the former at 5 per cent. “We need around 1,000 production facilities with 500-1,000 people each to meet the growth. Today, only 3-4 per cent of total production is organised, while the rest is unorganised and not in healthy condition. We need skilled enhancement to bring in organised production centres,” he said.
Sectors such as software and manufacturing provide better working conditions. A young person does not sit with an old craftsman and learn the nuances of designing jewellery. There is no school to teach them too. “We need a number of schools and colleges to teach jewellery designs.”
Retail
The jewellery retail sector too is booming, but faces the same problem as manufacturing — shortage of talent. However, gemology and jewellery need specialised training. “We cannot take people from the textile industry, and ask them to sell jewellery, and tell them to explain a treatment in a ruby or a diamond quality grade or gold grade.”
“We urgently need people to get trained,” he said.
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