When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the residents of the Indian city of Surat had no idea that a war thousands of kilometers away would caused them so much trouble. And they are really serious: dozens of people commit suicide in Surat because of the war in Ukraine. What is it about?
The million-strong city in the western state of Gujarat is the center of India's diamond industry, employing more than 600,000 people. According to official statistics, 80% of the world's diamonds are cut and polished in Surat.
How the war in Ukraine caused a crisis in Surat
At the moment, however, things are not going well there. Surat's diamond industry has been affected by a number of global factors, one of which is the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for over 2 years now. Western sanctions imposed on Russia also affect Russian diamonds. And this threw the industry in Surat into a severe crisis.
The EU and G7 countries have banned imports of Russian diamonds through third countries, severely limiting access to the key raw material used by India's diamond industry. The ban came into force in March 2022 and saw India's diamond revenue drop by nearly a third.
Due to the crisis in the industry and the resulting personal financial problems for those working in Surat, more and more people are committing suicide. At least 63 diamond polishers have taken their own lives in the past 16 months, with some leaving obituaries blaming dire financial circumstances for the decision to take their own lives, local media reported. Thousands of others have lost their jobs or had their incomes drastically reduced.
"Over 30% of India's raw material supply comes from Russia's Alrosa mine, says Dinesh Navadia, regional chairman of the Gems and Jewelery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) of India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry . "This lost business has not yet been restored," he adds to DV.
Jagdish Hunt, president of the Surat Diamond Traders Association, confirms the grim picture. "Even with the first bombings in Ukraine, things got worse for us," he says.
Help for desperate workers in India
Since mid-July this year, a hotline has been operating in Surat where suicidal workers can get help. Ramesh Zilaria, head of the Gujarat Diamond Workers Union, answers just such calls. "Since we launched the hotline, we have already had over 1,600 calls asking for help," he says.
One of the workers, who luckily the union was able to help, was on the verge of suicide. For four months, the diamond polisher had been out of work, he could no longer pay his rent and his child's school fees, he had debts of 500,000 rupees (about 5,400 euros), and the people he owed the money to began to behave aggressively. "He said he was completely exhausted and wanted to kill himself," Zilaria recalled.
"We eventually found a house to rent for his family, paid the deposit and the first month's rent, the child's school fees and found jobs for the man and woman outside the diamond industry," he says.
The union activist assures that they are trying to find work for other desperate people in the industry, but the only thing most of them know how to do is polish diamonds.
They cut working hours, cut salaries
Neither the government nor the diamond workers' union has reliable figures on how many people have lost their jobs because part of the diamond industry, like many others in India, operates informally.
"We tried to do research using Google technology, but most of them don't know how to work with it," Zilaria says. He suggests that at least 50,000 polishers have lost their jobs in the past six months, and in a year and a half – probably hundreds of thousands. And those who haven't yet lost their jobs have had their wages cut drastically.
"If the industry used to pay monthly wages of Rs 40,000, now the salary has come down to around Rs 23,000 per month," says Dinesh Navadia of the Gems and Jewelery Export Promotion Council.
Author: Mahima Kapoor