Child-and-adult-labour-in-the-export-oriented-garment-and-gem-polishing-industry-of-India

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Child and adult labour in the gem polishing export industry of Jaipur
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Some observations: 'newer' manufacturing units
I observed that the owners of the units which operate in the areas at the periphery of the walled
city and just outside the walled city compared with the owners of units in the centre of the city,
are younger of age and employ more children than adults. The units in the periphery of the city
happened to have been operating for 5 to 6 years, and the units outside the walled city were
operating for 3 to 6 years. The owners of these newer units, which are located in areas like Char
Darwaja and Pahurganj, compared with the units located inside the walled city like Chandpole
Bazar, Ghat Gate and Johari Bazar, mostly carried out one or two processes in the unit. The
workers in these units either did jobs like rough shaping or only joining and polishing, or only joining,
faceting and polishing.
These young unit owners were either educated to a certain level or illiterate. The educated owners
began later with working in the gem polishing industry, but were able to start on their own after a
few years. The illiterate owners often had started as children themselves and had learned the skills
from a master craftsman at a very young age. They seemed to have earned or saved enough
money with which they could start on their own, using the cheapest polishing machines. The
newer units were equipped with the cheapest machines and often manufacture the cheaper stones
of a lower quality. These 'new' young unit-owners did not give the impression that they taught the
children, but instead were busy in their own work and were only supervising the unit. Other 'new'
unit-owners were only supervising the unit and did not work themselves. The children who were
found at work in these units, were either not paid at all or were paid a pittance up to Rs 40 or Rs
50 per month during the first two years of working.
Most of the owners of the smaller new units had many difficulties with earning enough profits.
Often they had problems with the brokers, or they could not contact the proper middlemen. They
found themselves exploited by the middlemen. For them it was even more difficult to facet and
polish better quality stones because they did not have enough money to invest in better
machinery. Also they had problems in paying the rent of the hired unit and could not afford to pay
for electricity. Some of these owners had a hired polishing machine.
Complaints of adult workers
Several manufacturers and traders, said that the wages for adults had gone down during the last 5
to 7 years. The New Economic Policy had stimulated the export-oriented gem polishing industry
which had led to many new-comers in the field and to a larger quantity of imported rough gem
stones which became available in the market. The larger supply had also led to a rise in the
number of manufacturing units which were established during the last 5 to 7 years with more
manufacturers. This resulted in a fall in business for the older units. The larger supply of rough
stones depressed the prices per carat weight. The lower price per carat thus also lowered the
wages of the workers which are paid per carat weight. During talks with adult workers and unitowners
about this trend, they often complained about this trend and they had been working for
more than 5 or 6 years.
Still the wage of interviewed adult workers was above the minimum wage in Rajasthan, which is
Rs 17 per day for a skilled worker. Workers still had difficulty in earning enough money to buy