HK is on its way to empowering women in the diamond manufacturing industry
Posted by Hari Krishna
September 11, 2020
We shouldn’t be identified as men or women, we should be identified as a human.
The proactivity of women in the global diamond mining industry contrasts with the global diamond manufacturing industry and reveals gender parity issues in the diamond manufacturing domain.
Traditionally, women refrained from the diamond manufacturing industry as it was considered to be a men’s job. This scenario has improved, as today, women account for roughly 10% of the diamond manufacturing industry. But still, we have far more to go.
However, the gender-diversity policies are improving the traditional gender biases scenario in the industry in the last few years.
One of the path-breaking developments towards gender-inclusion drive in the industry is the introduction of the first-ever ‘Advocacy Task Force’ by the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) in the United States.
This unit is set-up to tackle the issues related to the gender-biases in the workplace, compensations, company policies, etc., in the jewelry industry.
Moreover, there is an important reason for attracting women in the industry apart from restoring equality and that is the Shortage of Fresh talent. Yes, let’s see how:
The diamond manufacturing industry is facing an acute shortage of fresh and skilled young talent. That leaves an urgent need of attracting new talent from the diverse sections of the community in the diamond manufacturing industry.
In India, which produces and supplies more than 80% of the global yield of diamonds in the market, a joint initiative by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Surat Diamond Association (SDA), and Gem Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is being carried out for over a decade to train unskilled tribal women the art of cutting and polishing precious stones.
This development will benefit the industry with new talents and create employment for the tribal women at their doorstep.
More than 130 units have been set up by many diamond manufacturers from Surat in the tribal areas of Zankhvav, Mandvi, Vankal, Ahwa, Dang, and border villages of Nandurbar in Maharashtra and Vansda, etc., to train and employ over 21,000 tribal women.
Today, these women are yearly processing over Rs. 1,300 crores worth of diamonds. This has indeed instilled a feeling of pride and confidence in them.
The Indian government has also launched a project called Gems and Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI), aiming to empower the workforce in the diamond manufacturing sector with upgraded skills, knowledge, and qualifications to insulate the country’s position and competitiveness in the global gems and jewellery market.
The Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) has also teamed up with the GJSCI to give a subsidized training program of diamond manufacturing with placement guarantee to college/school drop-outs.
Also, to attract emerging talents from the younger generation, diamond cutting/polishing is no longer labeled as a blue-collar job but they are referred to as diamond engineers.
Hari Krishna Exports is renowned for setting a change in the industry. We have set a new trend of empowering women in the diamond manufacturing section, which is usually dominated by male employees.
HK has 24 female employees working in its manufacturing units in Surat, of which 14 are working in the manufacturing department and others in administrative departments.
HK is setting an example by having 5 women diamond artists (who polish the diamonds) and 2 diamond engineers (involved in the diamond planning).
HK also accommodates 4 differently-abled women in the organization, who are earning almost equivalent to the top male performers of the company.
Hari Krishna also funds for a two-year diamond-studies course for women having a college degree, which enables them to start at a salary of at least $1,000 a month. We have taken up a mission of training women in the art of cutting and polishing diamonds.
In our training program, two women (one of them was differently-abled) have processed two Triple Excellent cut diamonds in a record of eight days.
They set a record of being the first women diamond artisans in the world to polish triple excellent cut diamonds weighing 1.06 carat and 1.02-carat diamonds in the record time.
An expert artisan with years of experience and knowledge would take a couple of days to precisely cut and polish a triple excellent cut diamond.
It should be noted that if the symmetry of all the 57 facets of a diamond is perfect and the cut and polish are excellent, then the diamond is said to be a triple excellent cut diamond.
To honor her path-breaking achievements, the company has incentivized her hard work by giving her a car under a Skill India Incentive Program, through Hon’ble PM of India Shri Narendra Modi in the year 2018-19.
Hari Krishna Exports is a diamond manufacturing company with a global reach. HK sources rough diamonds directly from the De Beers, Rio Tinto, DDC, and Alrosa, etc., and is the official suppliers of CanadaMark and ForeverMark diamonds.
Explore our priceless and rare inventory of GIA certified natural diamonds by signing in to hk.co or by downloading our leading-edge mobile app hk.co; available for both Android and iOS platforms.
[**Note: All the data and analytics in this blog are referred from the official reports published by Solitaire International periodically.]
