Here is what a top jeweller in Kerala pockets in a single sale of a 10-carat diamond necklace: Rs 10 lakh. And now here is what all the jewellers in Kerala together have contributed to the Kerala Jewellery Workers' Welfare Fund in the last 10 years: Rs 9 lakh.

The Welfare Fund Board's coffer is so empty that the most generous amount it can offer a poor jewellery worker is Rs 3000 for marriage expenses; there are welfare boards in Kerala that are rich enough to provide up to even Rs one lakh. The Board provides a monthly pension of Rs 1200 to less than 350 former jewellery workers. But this is paid by the government and not from its funds.

Realising that their Welfare Fund Board will be of no help, even jewellery workers have distanced from the Board. Not more than 19,500 of the nearly three lakh jewellery workers in the state have registered in the Board.

The fund was supposed to be nourished by the contribution of Kerala jewellers as per the Kerala Jewellery Workers' Welfare Fund Act, 2009. It was not as if the jewellers were asked for the moon. They were asked to part with a small 'dealer cess', just 0.25 per cent of their annual turnover.

The jewellers but took this as some sort of a government-sponsored loot and secured a stay from the High Court. Nearly 100 cases related to the 'dealer cess' are still in the courts. Citing the sub-judice nature of the 'dealer cess', the jewellers had all along refused to contribute to the Welfare Fund.

Now, as a last-ditch effort to fill up the Fund, the LDF government has tabled an amendment to the Jewellery Workers' Welfare Fund Act, 2009, in the Assembly on Wednesday. The amemdment has reduced the contribution considerably. Jewellers have to pay just 0.1 percent, and as a further concession to the jewelelrs this will be collected only on the last sales. Earlier, 0.25 was collected on the total turnover that included both purchase and sales.

Even then corporate jewellers have still not given their nod to the proposal. Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac has called a meeting of jewellers this week to discuss the issue.

Labour minister T P Ramakrishnan had already held talks with trade unions and representatives of jewellery workers. Compromise talks were held even during the last UDF regime to make the dealers pay at least 0.1 percent of their annual proceeds to the Welfare Fund. Dealers had then said that they would agree only if the share is reduced to 0.05 per cent. With the 'dealer cess' limited to a minuscule portion of the sales alone there is hope that the jewellers might finally ease their pockets.

Dealers argue that they cannot be expected to pay for the welfare of workers they have not employed. Moreover, the argument goes, wages and other entitlements are already paid to workers who work in their shops. Dealers also complain of discrimination. “Boat owners are not asked to contribute to the fishworkers welfare fund nor are handloom owners asked to fill the handloom workers welfare fund. Why then are only the jewellery dealers made to do so,” a representative of a leading jeweller asked.

As for jewellery workers, they are in dire straits. They say that new-age business practices have put them out of their jobs. “Now, none of the big shops have in-house jewellery workers. The only workers they employ are salesmen,” said Shankar, a jewellery worker and Thiruvananthapuram district secretary of Jewellery Workers Union.

Earlier, retailers used to grant piece-meal work to local artisans but now big retailers have wholesale agents to supply them jewellery. These agents employ other-state, mostly Bengali, workers as goldsmiths.

Poor demand has put traditional goldsmiths at a disadvantage. Earlier, goldsmiths were paid their labour cost and could keep the wastage (the gold shavings left after making an ornament). But technology has done away with wastage and workers are paid not more than 1.2 percent of the cost. They workers are paid a pittance when a dealer extracts 12 to 15 percent as manufacturing cost from the consumer.