Coronavirus: Surat Struggling as 400,000 Diamond Workers Stay Away July 25, 21 by John Jeffay
(IDEX Online) - Forty per cent of diamond artisans have reportedly failed to return to work in Surat, India, as fears mount of a third wave of coronavirus.
An estimated 400,000 migrant workers returned to their home villages for the Hindu festival of Holi, at the end of March, a
nd have remained there, according to the
Financial Express newspaper.
It says production across the city s 6,000 manufacturing units - which produces over 90 per cent of the world s diamonds - is down by 20 per cent as a result.
And it quotes Dinesh Navadiya, Gujurat chairman of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, as saying that many are struggling to deliver goods on time.