The year 2020 started on an optimistic note for goldsmiths, with many weddings planned, but their world turned upside down after the outbreak of COVID-19. Goldsmiths are mostly engaged in unorganised activity in small shops and make ends meet by making ornaments on demand.
In reality, the first blow came when corporate jewellery giants entered the scene. Demonetisation, which followed, saw many goldsmiths abandoning their profession and looking for alternatives. Many of them literally starved and it almost took one year for them to again take up the activity.
Today, the lockdown has seriously impacted their livelihoods and there are serious doubts about their ability to bounce back even after restrictions are lifted.
“Gold worker unions have rendered some help by supplying essentials such as rice and dal, but how can families survive on this meagre support when they lost their incomes?” asked Kocherla Srirama Murthy, a Bhimavaram union leader.
‘Helpless state’
Most of the goldsmiths are in a helpless state and the government should go to their rescue by constituting a corporation for the Viswabrahmin community, said Kocherla Srirama Murthy “There should be a special support scheme for goldsmiths like in the case of handloom workers, fishermen and shepherds. Working on gold just doesn’t make us any better or richer. We need an income support scheme at this hour of crisis,”said Sarampati Jagadeesh, a goldsmith from Gudivada of Krishna district.
