Migrants return home as Diamond City loses lustre

Thousands of diamond workers have left Surat as the processing hub grapples with sanctions on Russia, falling exports, and U.S. tariffs.

Bansari Kamdar

A worker at a diamond workshop in Surat. File picture

SURAT, Gujarat: Bapu Ganpat, a diamond polisher from Una, Gujarat, lived in Surat for more than two decades, scraping together enough to support his two children. Over the last five months, after his monthly wages were halved, rent, school fees, and daily expenses had eaten into every rupee he earned. Ganpat told The Migration Story that he had recently moved back, despite knowing that there was “no future” for his seven‑year‑old son and a thirteen‑year‑old daughter in the village. “Of course, I would like to go back (to Surat). But, right now, we cannot survive in the city,” he said.  In Una, he works as a labourer and earns around 10,000 rupees per month, around the same amount that he was earning in Surat when he left. “Work may be less back here, but at least I don’t have to pay rent or worry if we can afford food,” Ganpat said. 

He is not alone. Labourers in Surat, India’s hub of diamond cutters and polishers, are moving back to their native villages as many struggle to make ends meet in the “Diamond City.” For years, Surat has processed more than 80% of the world’s diamonds, employing over 800,000 people. As global demand cools and the United States’ tariffs bite, factories have been shuttered and wages have been slashed.

Most of the workers in the city’s diamond industry are migrants from Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, while many come from states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Bhavesh Tank, Vice President of Gujarat’s Diamond Workers Union, told The Migration Story that at least 200,000 people had been adversely affected by the layoffs, reduced hours, or wage cuts. The union estimates that more than 50,000 diamond workers have left Surat over the last twelve to fourteen months. “This number could swell further if there is no relief from the recession and tariffs,” said Tank.

The city’s diamond polishing industry has been grappling with a downturn over the last three years. First, sanctions on Russia hit Surat’s access to rough diamonds. Then, exports fell to a 20-year low earlier this year, due to dwindling demand from China. U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods, which went into effect in late August, was the latest blow.

“We tried to keep our machines on for as long as we could since the (Russia) sanctions. But now, there is no work left for us,” Dinesh Dobarya, an owner of a small polishing unit, told The Migration Story. Till last year, he employed 16 diamond workers. Now, he has just two. “I might have to let them go too, after Diwali,” Dobarya added. 

Diamonds for cutting and polishing scattered on a tray at a workshop in Surat. File pic

In May, the Gujarat government announced a special package for workers who lost jobs in Surat and Ahmedabad’s distressed diamond hubs. These included subsidies on loan interest, waivers on electricity duty, and a relief of up to 13,500 rupees on school fees of every child of unemployed workers. However, implementation of the package on the ground has lagged. For instance, in response to a question by Congress legislator Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary in the State Assembly this month, the government said they had provided financial assistance to only 170 children until July this year. They had received 89,948 applications, of which more than 70,000 were from Surat. On Thursday, the government said it had disbursed 8.28 crore rupees towards school fees for 6,368 children of jobless diamond workers in Surat.

With no social security net to fall back on, a slash in wages has a ripple effect on all aspects of life, including children’s education and repayment of debt. Alpesh, a 32-year-old diamond polisher from Botad, another small town in Gujarat’s Saurashtra, told The Migration Story that his pay had gone from 17,000 rupees to 10,000 to 11,000 rupees in the last few months. He had moved to Surat twelve years ago and subsequently brought his family along. “My two daughters and I plan to move back after their school breaks for Diwali. I am already incurring a debt of 5,000 rupees every month. This is unsustainable,” he said and added that he planned to work as a farmhand alongside his brother, Sanjay, also a diamond worker who had left for Botad three months ago.

Migrant workers often rely on family and kin networks to decide on where to move. According to Tank, not only are workers leaving, but fewer migrants are now choosing to work in the diamond industry or come to Surat, given the profession’s lack of job stability in the last few years.

Other industries in Surat have also seen a dip in migration. Sharad Zagade, an executive at Aajivika Bureau, a non-profit working on issues of informal and migrant workers told The Migration Story that labourers in the city’s power loom industry—which employs nearly 1 million workers, 80% of whom are migrants—are preferring to move to places like Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu.“The newer generation doesn’t want to come to Surat. They say there is more exploitation, limited social security and no proper compensation in the city,” he said. 

For a long time, migrants formed the lifeblood of this coastal city, making up nearly 60% of its total population. As Diwali approaches, many face the conundrum—stay in Surat in hope of a turnaround or return to the precarious lives in their villages. For hundreds in the diamond industry, however, the answer seems all too clear.

Bansari Kamdar is an independent journalist and researcher based in India. She has earlier worked for Reuters News as its Europe, Middle East, and Africa editor, and also worked with BBC World, The Boston Globe, The Diplomat and World Politics Review, among other publications. Her reporting focuses on the intersections of economy, labour and gender.