More than buyers, governments and shopowners matter
Ibuy quite a lot of jewellery even though I don’t wear it a lot but we need it for family ocassions and weddings. I was surprised to find out about the existence of human rights abuse and child abuse in the jewellery industry.
I would not have even thought about it. We have a long-term relationship with the jewellers from whom our family buys jewellery and we have never even spoken about it. I would actually ask them now about this issue.
But, how much of an impact will one person have by not buying jewellery? I will try to educate people around me but I hope governments get involved as well.
This is not directly related to the consumers. Of course, the end buyer is the one paying money but there are a lot of middle men involved as well. So, I feel it is important for them to be affected as the first buyers, whether it is the brokers or the shopkeepers.
As a person looking to buy jewellery, if I go to 10 gold shops and all of them do not have an idea or do not follow these practices, I do not have much of a choice.
So, I feel the end consumer does not have much control. Yes, he or she is paying the money to buy the jewellery but I would lay more importance on the middlemen because they buy from the mines and they need to be more aware.
Also, if there is a law or a corporate social responsibility act in place, I think it would have more of an impact.
From Ms Teena Thawani Artist and event planner working in Dubai