Goldsmiths lose sheen as big retail finds favour

With more people buying from big jewellery stores, these skilled artisans have had to find other means of livelihood

Save for a few, goldsmiths have found jobs as security guards, daily-wage workers and gold appraisers in jewellery stores, banks — Photo: R. Ravindran

Ask your grandmother where her wedding jewellery was bought, she is most likely to say, at a local goldsmith’s, popularly known as asari .

The word asari conjures up images of a skinny man crouching over a cast iron stove and fanning hot charcoal using a blower to melt gold and make ornaments.

Sadly, the lives of these skilled men have lost all glitter.

For more than a decade now, people have been going to big jewellery stores, rather than making use of the craftsmanship of goldsmiths.

“This has landed a heavy blow on our profession and today, there are very few left in our trade,” said K. Venugopal of C.P. Koil Street in Mylapore. He too left the profession a few years ago and set up his own jewellery store.

Many goldsmiths have turned into security guards, daily-wage workers and gold appraisers in jewellery stores and banks.

“I have been in the field for more than three decades. The wastage cost is more with goldsmiths. Shops have machines to do whatever we did, hence the wastage is minimal,” he said.

Manikandan, another goldsmith, said he had been in the profession for the past two decades.

“My father too did the same thing. But he made money as a lot of people approached him to making jewellery, especially during weddings,” he said.

Today, Mr. Manikandan mostly serves small jewellers. “But the profit is very little. I make just Rs. 10,000 every month. I am not sure how long I will be able to continue in the profession,” he said.