Surat diamond workers to have identity cards

Surat, May 28(ANI): The Surat Diamond Association (SDA) has taken an initiative of keeping a database of diamond workers by issuing them photo identity cards.

SDA President Dinesh Navadia said that they have decided to issue around 500,000 'Empower Cards' to the diamond workers in Surat over next six months.

"For years, the diamond industry workers have faced identification problems because here, the workers themselves choose their boss and they don't work at one place. They are movable as they work in one factory in the morning and in another factory in the evening," Navadia said.

"So, they required identity cards, so the Surat Diamond Association decided to issue cards called Empower Card and the association will keep all the details of the workers," he added.

The identity cards would not only give the workers proof of their employment, but would also make them eligible for various programmes provided by Central and state governments.

"Surat is famous for diamonds in the world and diamond workers play a major role in it and the issuance of identity cards to those workers is a great idea. This social card will give an identity to the diamond workers in Surat," said Daamji Mawani, a diamond broker.

"Two years ago when the country was going through the recession period, at that time a team had arrived for some survey, but the diamond workers were not given the benefits of the programmes, as they didn't have any identity cards. But now the diamond workers will have their own identification with these cards," he added.

The cards would help the SDA to keep the past record of the diamond workers and would also make it easy for the government to identify the diamond workers to give them benefits under the insurance schemes, educational and other loans.

India's turnover in the diamond-trading sector constitutes four to five percent of the world trade. (ANI)