Sitapura Gems and Jewellery Industries Association, Gaurav Jain, Women in jewellery making

The process of jewellery making has generally been a men’s domain. But this is changing now. With the demand for artificial and fashion jewellery growing, jewellers are now pinning hopes on women to fill the gap in labour supply.

Over the past few months, Sitapura Gems and Jewellery Industries Association has trained and absorbed over 250 women in the core manufacturing process. The target is to skill and employ 2000 women, but the Covid protocol of working at reduced capacity has slowed down training and deployment.

According to Gaurav Jain, president of Sitapura Gems and Jewellery Association, earlier, women were working as operators or designers. Now, they are being prepared to work in all the processes of manufacturing, including craftsmanship, which has been dominated by men till now.

Currently, 150-200 women are in the training process. The number of factories showing interest to hire women is growing. Most women labourers or crafts persons are engaged in the artificial and fashion jewellery segments because the sector is growing fast and the order pipeline is robust.

In European countries and China, a number of women are engaged in the sector in all kinds of job roles. In India, a beginning is just being made.