Industry body to boost skills of gems, jewellery workers

Hit hard by the shortage of skilled manpower, the Indian diamond processing industry has formed a unique model to overcome it. Under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce, the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has formed a separate Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) for overall enhancement of skill in factory workers across the industry.

The purpose of this skill council is to enhance the skill of existing manpower among factory workers and generate new skilled workers for overall development of the industry. The council will tie-up with the existing training institutes including Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Indian Gemological Institute (IGI), alongwith setting up of new institutes in major diamond cutting and processing centres.

“The ministry wanted to provide with certificates equivalent to the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) so that students do not require to dedicate special time for this training. This initiative will be similar to the prevailing system in information technology (IT) and textile sectors,” said Sanjay Kothari, vice-chairman of GJEPC.

The industry currently employs between 700,000 – 800,000 skilled and unskilled manpower for diamond cutting and polishing, in addition to indirect association of another two million people. Hence, the total manpower strength comes to around three million.

The industry lost nearly 400,000 skilled manpower post economic recession in 2008, out of which, an estimated half returned while the remaining half migrated to other industries including textile and agriculture farming. A number of them also got local employment through the Union government run various rural guarantee programme, which helped workers stay back in their native place.

“The ministry wanted to increase it further by developing employment related skills and exploit full potential in this industry,” said Kothari.

Although the business is going in as usual, yet the industry plans to generate more skilled manpower through students’ keen interest in diamond processing.

Rajiv Jain, chairman of the GJEPC, said, “We are in discussion with a number of consultancy firms for developing a curriculum which will be uniform for all existing and forthcoming training institutes. GJEPC will finalise the name soon.”

India which processes 11 out of every 13 rough diamond pieces available in the world, is currently facing huge shortage of manpower.

GJSCI will be a joint venture of GJEPC, Gem & Jewellery Federation (GJF), Seepz Gems and Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association (SGJMA) & Jewellers Association of Jaipur (JJA) and promoted under the aegis of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a first-of-its-kind public private partnership (PPP) in India set up to facilitate the skill development.

Initially, the skill council will have 12 directors who will be contributing Rs 25 lakh each for funding the programme at existing institutes in Mumbai, Surat and Jaipur. NSDC will also contribute some funds to support the move. Overall, the skill council is planning to set up new institutes at Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore through unified efforts from industry and government.

GJSCI is one of many sector skill councils that NSDC is setting up in association with industry. NSDC’s objective is to create 500 million skilled workers in India by 2022. GJSCI will have on its governing council, 11 directors from industry and two from the government. Of the 11 industry directors, five will be nominated by GJEPC, four by the Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) and one each by SGJMA and JJA. GJSCI aims to train, skill and enhance 4.07 million people by 2022.