Gujarat's Jamnagar is known as the "Brass City," where everything from small pins to aeroplane parts are made. There are about 4 lakh people are associated with this business.
Women from 40 to 50 villages are employed in the brass industry to perform various packing tasks.
In addition to Gujaratis, artisans from UP, Bihar, Orissa, and Bengal also make a living working in Jamnagar's brass industry.
Jamnagar Factory Owners Association President Lakhabai Keshu said in an interview to ANI, "Our brass part industry started here in 1948, earlier there was a plastic industry, the plastic industry shut down here due to the introduction of automatic machines, after that we started brass work."
He said that today, there are about 10,000 brass units in Jamnagar, from the engines to spectacles to aeroplane parts are prepared out of which 15 per cent is exported to other countries.
"In last five years, we had only 2 to 3 per cent exports in Europe but now it reached to 10 per cent because the CNC and VMC machines are being made in India, which were earlier made in Italy, the cost of Italian machine was Rs 80 lakh and in India the same is available for Rs 12 to 30 lakh," he added.
He said, "It is totally automatic and computerized, so in which we can make even 0 mm items, if we insert any rod inside by fitting the programming, it will come out of the same dimension. There are 500 such factories which make rods, we have our own association which extracts meta-analysis, just a few years back we have NABL, we can issue that certificate, our certificate is valid in any country in the world."
Keshu said that exporters do not have to go to Rajkot-Ahmedabad, as they can get the certificate of metal here which is valid all over the world. Almost 30 per cent of the women get employment in the brass industry.
Asia's largest brass-making centres in Moradabad and Aligarh are totally different because there is more hand work involved.
The production which is at least 800 tonnes of goods containers is exported in a month and the scrap piece of the domestic market is preferred because there is no other source of brass here.
There is a lot of support from the government for the brass industry, which is a startup idea, the youth will get a lot of benefits from it and the new generation is fully supported by the government. The government is fully supporting the MSMEs and also provides the benefit of many subsidies.
He further said, "Whatever problems we face, the Gujarat government also gives us solutions immediately. We are hundred per cent satisfied with the government in Gujarat."
Brass businessman Narendra Bhai said that the brass business is very good, it is the identity of Jamnagar, women are also involved in this system because there are different types of work that women can do easily.
Gujarat will go to Assembly polls on December 1 and 5, while the counting of votes will take place on December 8.
( With inputs from ANI )
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