Jewellery Workshops and Karigars of Mumbai

Behind the showrooms

Zaveri Bazaar and Kalbadevi are where India's gold is traded, and also where a large part of it is made. The showrooms face the street; behind and above them, in Sheikh Memon Street, Dhanji Street, Khara Kuwa and Champa Galli, the upper floors of old buildings such as ADN House are full of small workshops — galas — each with a few benches and karigars.

A large share of these karigars come from Bengal, and many workshops are run by Bengali master craftsmen who came to Mumbai a generation or two ago. Others come from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and each group tends to keep to its own kind of work.

How the work is divided

Most workshops do job-work. A jeweller or manufacturer gives gold and a design; the karigar returns the finished piece, and the gold is weighed in and weighed out. Around them are the casting units, laser-soldering and polishing shops, plating units, CAD designers, refiners and the hallmarking centres, all within walking distance. Dhanji Street is known for antique and die work; Sheikh Memon Street for gold handling, setting and melting.

SEEPZ and the export makers

Export jewellery is made in factories rather than galas. SEEPZ at Andheri East, set up in 1973, grew into one of the country's biggest jewellery export zones, with diamond-studded gold and platinum jewellery made in its multi-storied buildings and the newer SEEPZ++ blocks. Some large makers sit just outside the gate in MIDC Marol.

The India Jewellery Park

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, with the state's MIDC, is building the India Jewellery Park at Mahape–Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai, meant to bring manufacturing units, workers' housing and common facilities together in one place as the trade grows out of the old buildings.

Makers on this site

The workshops themselves are rarely registered under a public name; the manufacturers below are the named houses of the making trade.

Other gem and jewellery lines

Company, mill, factory and shop names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Inclusion is for independent discovery only, not endorsement or affiliation.