India KP Chair held a Special Forum
ASM explores intersectoral approaches
for artisanal welfare and capacity building
Mega
CFCs planned, at least one CFC
planned
for every high-potential cluster
For
us, Dabbawalas, the customer is God!
Need
to change the narrative
and
perception of ASM
A
Special Forum on “Artisanal Mining: From Smaller Steps to Larger Outcomes” was
held at the ongoing five-day Kimberley Process Intersessional Meeting 2019 in
Mumbai today. The session provided the participants a glimpse of various
opportunities and challenges facing the sector and expressed solution ideas
drawn from experiences within as well as outside the sector.
Senior
Economic Advisor, Department of Commerce, Ms. Rupa Dutta said that Common
Facility Centres (CFCs) have emerged as a great best practice for socioeconomic
transformation, which could be replicated by participating countries.
“We
encourage friends from diamond-producing countries to adopt similar models for
alluvial and artisanal mining. Facilitating projects such as CFCs makes it easy
for informal miners to access facilitation, training and support; enables
unorganized miners to come together and helps them become a larger part of the
organized sector. They can work with traders’ associations who can play the
role of a mediator between government and miners.
We
invite participating countries to visit CFCs of India; we can offer you support
in formulating project proposals based on this and implementing them. We are
passionately exhorting you to study this since this is a good example of
out-of-the-box thinking, creativity and empowerment of workers in the sector.”
Ms. Dutta noted that it is important that besides working for welfare of
diamond miners, we also enable them to move up the value chain. She called for
the building of a repository of best practices in the sector.
The
Senior Economic Advisor said that the CFCs are supported by the Government of
India, and implemented by GJEPC for the gem and jewellery sector. The basic
idea of CFCs in the diamond sector is to promote MSMEs, given that the sector
is dominated largely by them. She explained to the international delegates that
CFCs provide technical support and other forms of capacity building assistance
to the 1.2 million plus workers in the sector. It enables to further develop
the nurtured skill of these workers, which is a competitive advantage for the
Indian diamond industry.
Ms.
Dutta underlined that the CFCs require no investment in land, the space is
rented and local diamond associations are taken on board. The identification of
location, feasibility study and design are undertaken by the GJEPC, while the
Government of India gives a one-time grant, after which the centres are
expected to become self-sustaining.
Ms.
Dutta informed that there are four operational CFCs in Gujarat, while four more
are planned in the state. She said that dedicated clusters will be set up at
high-potential locations in the country, with at least one CFC in every
potential cluster. She announced that the Government is planning to set up Mega
Common Facility Centres in Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities; such mega-CFCs
will cater to the skill development, R&D and other needs of the value
chain. She added while CFCs are being set up for the jewellery sector, the goal
is to replicate this model in other manufacturing sectors as well.
The
CFCs drew inspiration from a 2013 survey by GJEPC which highlighted the
challenges of the gem & jewellery sector, such as shortage of skilled
manpower, deficiencies in quality and productivity, non-affordability of costly
machinery and equipment, and low exposure to technology and global industry
trends. It was realized that investments required pooling of resources, leading
to the concept of CFCs.
President,
Mumbai Dabbawalas Association, Shri Ullhas Shantaram Muke was present on the
occasion. On his behalf, Shri Ritesh S. Andre, great-grandchild of the founder,
said that it is the internal excellence upheld by the Dabbawalas which have
enabled the external excellence of the organization. For the Dabbawalas, the
customer is God, and this inspires them to do anything for the good of the
customer, he said.
Shri
Andre said that a unique coding system and distribution flow are two factors
that form the basis of the supply chain management excellence of the
organization. Giving a glimpse into the specially designed coding system for
recording information about transactions, he said that it will take 5-6 months
of training for someone to learn the system.
He
said that the organization does two lakh deliveries per day, resulting in four
lakh transactions, at an error rate of one in 6 million transactions, with an
employee strength of 5,000, 80% of whom are illiterate. He said that they
provide lunch box pick-up and delivery services all over Mumbai at minimal
charge, without using any technology, paper, plastic or private vehicle. He
informed the international delegates that the organization has had a record of
no strike and no resignation in the 128 years of its existence; it has no age
limit too for its employees (an 85-year-old Dabbawala is still working). The
organization has won more than 1000 certificates, more than 500 awards and has
taken more than 2000 sessions all over the world, he added.
President,
All India Angadias Association, Shri Mahendra Patel gave a presentation on the
operational model of Angadias and its role in the gem and jewellery industry.
Shri Patel explained how the Angadias originated out of the need for kings,
royalty, traders and financiers to transport precious goods. He said that
Angadias were critical in the growth of the diamond cutting and polishing
industries.
He
informed that the modern Angadias use technology, including GPS and other
software. They make 10,000 shipments daily, with a strength of 5000 employees,
making deliveries within 24 hours. Currently, Angadias transport mainly
diamonds, gold and jewellery. Various measures are taken to ensure maintenance
of customer trust and employee commitment, he said.
Senior
Vice President, De Beers Group, Ms. Feriel Zerouki brought to light the need to
change the narrative and perception of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM),
to make ASM a source of development. She reminded everyone that ASM is an
extremely important of sector for social development, since it provides
livelihood for 1.5 million people in Africa alone. Stating that a stigmatized
sector negatively impacts diamonds, she pointed to an online video shared by a
customer to drive home the point that consumers are going to listen to what
others say about the industry, and not to what the sector has to say about
itself.
Speaking
on the subject of “Transparency in Artisanal Diamond Mining”, Ms. Zerouki
stated that it is critical to engage with the ASM sector to create consumer
demand and address the stigma. She informed that the miners themselves often
lack an understanding of the value of the product they are mining.
She
informed the audience of Gemfair, an initiative by De Beers Group, which aims
to improve diamond equity, by creating a secure route to market for artisanal
and small-scale mined diamonds. “We developed a technology solution that
started informing miners on the site and teaching and training them on
evaluation; it is a digital solution to support traceability.
Gemfair
is built on the three pillars of certification, production and transactions.
The digital solution enables provenance, transparency and traceability. We
believe the future of the diamond industry is going to be built on blockchain.
Community engagement is extremely important; solutions such as Gemfair will
also help formalization of artisanal mining sector. Sierra Leone has provided
us the right framework to turn Gemfair into a success.” Ms. Zerouki said that
governments, industry and civil society stakeholders need to support ASM as a
tool for development.
Executive
Director, GJEPC, Shri Sabyasachi Ray highlighted the central role of worker
communities in the sector and how other players such as GJEPC play a primarily
catalytic role. He spoke about Swasthya Ratna Policy, a health insurance policy
by GJEPC for the gem and jewellery workforce, aimed at providing them quality
healthcare of their choice.
25%
of the premium will be contributed by GJEPC. He informed that the policy covers
5 lakh lives and claims worth 100 crore rupees have already been disbursed.
Shri
Ray informed that besides this, a fund Swasthya Kosh has been created to cater
to the needs of contract workers who are not represented by any organization.
To bring in auditability of public funds, GJEPC launched the Parichay Card, an
ID card for all workers of gem & jewellery sector. Fifteen associations
have already enrolled and 80 thousand cards have been processed. 75% of the
premium is paid from the fund and the card-holder needs to pay only 25%.
Anyone
can donate to the fund. Shri Ray announced that the plan is cover 5 million
workers in 3 years, which requires a fund worth 100 million US dollars. He said
that the goal is to ensure that the well-being of the workers is provided by
the industry itself in which the workers are engaged.
Ms.
Zeenat Ali Shequa of the National Council of Applied Economic Research
presented a case study on Cluster Mapping for Gem & Jewellery Sector, which
is now underway. She said that the study is important since no plausible
statistics are available on the exact number of clusters, units and workers in
the sector, despite the immense importance of the sector to the nation’s economy
and development.
The
cluster mapping exercise aims to map the Gem & Jewellery units and clusters
by region and product segments. This will result in data such as the number of
workers by region and product segment, which will contribute to more informed
and evidence-based policy decisions for the sector. She said this would help
decisions such as choice of locations for jewellery parks, mega and
standard-sized CFCs and training institutes.
This
would also enable more targeted delivery of social benefits to the workers
involved in the sector. Opinions of all stakeholders – including owners and
artisans – would be considered in conducting the mapping study, informed Ms.
Shequa.
Chief
Executive Officer, My KYC Bank, Shri Pranay Narvekar, who moderated the Special
Forum, said that the purpose of the Forum is to look at practices across
different sectors and see how they can applied to arrive at solutions for the
artisanal mining sector. Noting that artisanal mining has always been a focus
area for the Kimberley Process, he asked the audience whether we can have
solutions developed for the industry with minimal resources.
He
said that discovery, transport, valuation and ensuring that the stone is
tracked right through the chain are some of the key challenges of the sector.
He said that the Forum explored solutions under the broad themes of
cooperatives, assisted groups and enablers.
Comments
Post a Comment