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Journalism of Courage
Jobless diamond workers forced to pull out their children from schools
The global meltdown has already throttled Surat’s diamond industry and rendered many people jobless. Unfortunately, the meltdown effect has trickled down to schools as well, for jobless diamond workers have started pulling out their children from schools in Surat and are going back to their native villages scattered across Saurashtra.
“Around 1,500 School Leaving Certificates (SLC) were issued to parents by the municipal schools in Varachha after Diwali. Besides, about 2,000 SLCs were given by different aided and non-aided schools in the area. We are trying our best to dissuade the parents, but they are unrelenting,” said Mahendra Desai, president of the Varachha Students Council. Students right up to class XII are dropping out, and attendance has thinned in both municipal and private schools.
The Rs 70,000-crore diamond industry is going through its worst ever patch since the meltdown took effect, affecting about 6 lakh workers. A majority of Surat’s diamond processing units have, in effect, shut shop. They have failed to open after the two-month lay off declared till Diwali as a last-ditch attempt to halt the slide.
Varachha Parents’ Association president Kamlesh Chodwadia said the situation is going from bad to worse. “Many schools have been insisting on payment of quarterly fees during the start of the second term and many jobless parents just cannot pay. In many cases, we have ourselves helped parents get the SLC when some schools refused to grant them for want of non-payment of dues,” he added.
Surat District Education Officer (DEO) K R Zanjhrukia said that schools are being persuaded to be lenient to the parents. “Around 10 per cent of students in different schools have been taken off the rolls to move away to the native villages. Their parents are in a bad financial state; so we held meetings with the trustees of different schools in Varachha and Kapodara and persuaded them to extend a fee concession to the students or waive the fee for the moment,” he said.
Mansukh Larya, the principal of M V Patel School at Varachha said that things are getting worse by the day. “We still hold classes regularly, but the number of students turning up, has gone down. Many parents have taken the SLCs of their children. We have told the parents not to take them away, but they plead that they cannot survive here without a job,” he said.
Others underline the hopelessness of the situation. President of the Secondary Teachers’ Association Rajesh Desai said too many schools are seeing a deluge of SLC applications post Diwali. “Some schools charge annual fees from students and we have represented to the District Education Officer to return half of the term fees to the parents who take away their children from school. Most of these parents stay in rented houses and find it difficult to make ends meet. In some schools, the situation is so bad that classes are being cancelled for want of students,” he said.
As the situation continues to be critical, the state government, along with the South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGGCI), is organising a huge Gem & Jewellery exhibition in Surat, Sparkle 2008, to woo the foreign buyers. SGCCI president Chetan Shah said this is an absolute necessity. “The industry is dying and too many diamond workers are being rendered jobless. We need to revive it and attract buyers,” Shah said.
