Nearly 300,000 jewellers to strike on Monday to protest against the mandatory hallmarking process

Nearly 300,000 jewellers across the country will go on a token strike on Monday, responding to the call of a national task force on hallmarking to protest against the implementation of mandatory hallmarking process in the country by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The new marking system, the six-digit hallmarking unique ID (HUID), is currently taking five to 10 days to hallmark the products, resulting in severe delays for the industry, said executives.

The national task force was formed by 350 associations and federations representing all four zones of the gems and jewellery industry. The objective of this committee is to ensure a smooth implementation of mandatory hallmarking across the country.


“Hallmarking is always a welcome move since it has helped us to build our businesses and win the confidence of customers, but we cannot accept the new HUID as it has nothing to do with the purity of gold. It is just a tracking mechanism,” said Ashok Minawala, former chairman of the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) who is a member of the task force. “The one-day token strike is our peaceful protest against arbitrary implementation of HUID, which is impractical in all senses. HUID is cumbersome and shall lead to harassment for customers.”

Two committees have been formed and about 10 meetings held but no relief has yet been offered to the industry in writing by the BIS or consumer affairs ministry, the jewellers alleged.

Mandatory hallmarking became effective from June 16.

“It is estimated that yearly 10-12 crore pieces of jewellery are manufactured in India. In addition, the existing stock of six-seven crore pieces is yet to be hallmarked. This takes the total count of pieces to be hallmarked in a year to 16-18 crore pieces,” said Dinesh Jain, director GJC. “Current speed and capacity of hallmarking centres is about 200,000 pieces per day. At this speed, it will take 800-900 days or equivalent to three-four years to mark this year’s production.”