Around 500 jewellery manufacturers of Rajkot will be on a one day strike on Monday so as to protest the introduction of hallmarking unique identification (HUID) number system by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BSI) for jewellery.
The new requirement will slow down the business cycle of the jewellers and put customers’ privacy in danger.
As per the Gems and Jewellery Association, Rajkot, its members will observe a token strike on Monday to protest against the introduction of HUID for every article of jewellery from June 16.
Jagdish Soni, the president of GJAR (association of 500 jewellery manufacturers of Rajkot) said that a lot of customers purchase jewellery on the basis of their trust in a jeweller built over a period of time. Getting a jewellery article hallmarked takes a day; however, getting HUID for an article takes a full week. The process involves uploading files on BSI portal, which slows down the business.
Soni further alleged that the move will benefit organised jewellery, chains, and branded retailers. If a small jeweller gets a kilogram of gold jewellery made but can’t put it on display as HUID would take long time, this would affect the artisans working in jewellery manufacturing badly.
