Five-year global low; in India, a four-year low — the shiny metal is in the news again, with the steady drop in prices causing concern across the world. But in Thrissur, the backbone of Kerala’s gold industry, this news is welcome. The town has over 700 jewellery shops and more than 3,000 manufacturing units. Scattered across suburbs like Venginissery, Chiyyaram, Koorkenchery, Vallachira and Perinchery, these units provide bread-and-butter to about 50,000 artisans, including 10,000 migrants from West Bengal and Bihar. Kerala is the highest consumer of gold in the country. And 70 per cent of the gold jewellery the state sells every day is crafted in Thrissur.
The city’s tryst with gold started centuries ago, with the arrival of Roman and Arab traders traversing the Silk Route. The second gold wave was courtesy of Shaktan Thampuran, the ruler of Cochin in the 18th century. He invited 50 Syrian Christian families to set up businesses in Thrissur. Many jewellers in the town trace their roots to the families that arrived on the Raja’s invitation.
Thrissur’s High Road is packed with 500-800 sq ft jewellery shops, which are cheek by jowl with the massive showrooms of bigger names like Kalyan Jewellers, Avatar, Malabar, Alukkas (Joy, Francis and Jos), Chemmanur and Lulu Gold. Last year, TS Kalyanaraman of Kalyan Jewellers and MA Yusuff Ali of Lulu Gold were in Forbes India’s list of richest Indians. There are, of course, no big bucks for the painstaking labour that goes into crafting gold. The pay and living conditions of the artisans are dismal.
Photos by KK Mustafah