Gem Mining Case Study

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Determinants of income of Gem mining workers with special reference to Rathnapura District
Introduction
Background of the Study
Sri Lanka?s gem industry is with a very lengthy and colorful history. Sri Lanka, the pearl of the Indian Ocean, ?Gemmed Island? and ?Rathna Dveepaya?; has been well-known to the world for centuries as a land popular for Gemstones. Gem industry is one of the oldest economic sectors in the country which comes from nearly 3000 years back.((?Gem trade in Sri Lanka _ Explore Sri Lanka Gem Market,? n.d.) It means that the story of Sri Lanka?s gems is as old as civilization itself.?Most of the time, Gems are highly related with the traditional beliefs, myths and the religious life of the majority of?Sri Lankans.?
According to National Gem and Jewellery Authority out of 65,000 square Kilometres, the total available land, 80% declared as ?Potential Gem Bearings?. Apart from that Sri Lanka owns the significant amount of Gemstone deposits in the world generating over 70 diversities out of around 200 known Gemstone varieties in the world which are categorized based on …show more content…

But researches which are previously done by several researchers have revealed that they have very low income level parallel to other contributors of the industry. Katupotha (2014) identified that poverty as major problem faced by gem miners. Amarasinghe (1999) also investigated that the majority of the miners gone to low income families and had very poor living conditions. According to these factors it is cleared that gem miners could not get sufficient benefits from participating in mining activities. This point represents the inefficiency of gem industry. Therefore this study will focus on finding information regarding the determinants of income of gem mining

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