Indian goldsmiths competing with machine-made jewellery

Agra: Bachhoo Singh, a goldsmith, works hard to craft a gold ring in the dim light of his workshop. He blows through the Baknol (blow torch) to shape the gold chunk into a fine piece of jewellery.

However, in spite of his nimble workmanship, he is unable to make two ends meet due to lack of work orders. Goldsmiths in India's northern Agra are increasingly facing a threat to their livelihood in the face of stiff competition from machine-made ornaments.

Most jewelers are now manufacturing ornaments using machines that are more precise and enhance the finest details.

"Our future is bleak because all the work these days is done by machines. We only get that kind of work that the machines are unable to do...we don't get much work these days because the machines do most of the work. We do not have enough money to set up our own plants, neither do we have enough gold to hire people to work for us besides the expenditure involved in making gold ornaments has also risen," said Singh.

Jewellers argue that manufacturing jewellery on a large scale with the help of goldsmiths would involve a lot of time and also lead to wastage, whereas machine-made ornaments are easy to produce. "Our manufacturing sector is becoming organized. Now, even with a set of three workers we cannot make a complete jewellery set. It involves teamwork, therefore the work has shifted to the mechanized style. Now, the old system has its own limitations for instance, a worker cannot make all kinds of designs. So, this sector is now changing," said Ramesh, a jewellery shop owner.

Moreover, the Indian Standards Bureau has now introduced the concept of hallmarked jewellery to ensure that customers are not duped by merchants who sell low-quality gold.

This has led to customers trusting big jewellers that manufacture ornaments in bulk and have a reputation for selling good-quality ornaments, rather than small-time goldsmiths.

This has thrown a large number of goldsmiths out of their traditional jobs, carried forward through generations, leaving the rest of them with no power to negotiate their salaries. India is the world's top gold consumer, with the current rate of gold at 8,922 rupees ($ 198) per 10 grams, down from a record 10,715 ($ 238) rupees in May, but goldsmiths are paid as little as 100 USD per month for creating jewellery worth thousands of dollars.

Bureau Report