At 5 a.m., when most of Proddutur is still asleep, 38-year-old Ghouse Basha steps into a small hotel kitchen on Jinnah Road, stirring vessels instead of shaping gold. Until a year ago, his mornings began at a workbench, crafting ornaments that earned him a steady income and respect as a skilled goldsmith. Today, rising gold prices have pushed him, and many like him, out of their ancestral profession and into daily-wage work.
His story reflects a quiet crisis unfolding across Kadapa district. As gold prices touched historic highs, customer purchases declined sharply, drying up orders for handmade ornaments.
In Proddutur, once a hub of skilled swarnakaras, workshops remain open but largely idle. Artisans say they now spend more time waiting than working, uncertain about when the next order will arrive. For Ghouse Basha, who once earned about Rs 20,000 a month, the past year has been devastating. With work dwindling, he struggled to pay house rent, school fees and insurance premiums before finally leaving the trade. He now works from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. at a hotel, earning Rs 500 a day. “There is nothing left to save, and this income cannot secure my children’s future,” he says.
Fifty-year-old Shamsheer Basha, a seasoned goldsmith who once earned Rs 3,000–Rs 4,000 a day, says the decline began even before the recent price surge, as outside artisans undercut local workers. As gold became costlier, orders almost vanished. He bought an auto to support his family, but earns barely Rs 600 a day, most of which goes towards loan instalments and household expenses.
For Erraballi Akhtar Ahmed, the crisis is also about losing a legacy. His father, Johar—popularly known as “Junkila Johar”—spent over five decades crafting traditional jhumkas. Akhtar mastered the same intricate skills but now survives on occasional work and mounting debts. “Many goldsmiths have left the town in search of work. We don’t even know where they went,” he says.
Veteran artisan Pala Obulesu, who has run a workshop for 30 years, says the last eight months have been the hardest.
Once earning Rs 25,000 a month, he now struggles to pay shop rent and electricity bills. Health and age have worsened the plight for others like Zakheer Hussain, 52, who is burdened with debts after multiple surgeries.
Gold prices have risen from Rs 48,480 in 2020 to Rs 1,40,450 in December 2025, making ornaments unaffordable and eroding demand for handcrafted jewellery. As workshops fall silent and skills passed down through generations risk fading away, goldsmiths in Kadapa district are urging the government to recognise their crisis and support the survival of a traditional craft on the brink.
Reports: S Viswanath, Phanindra Papasani, Y Brahmaji, Neelima Eaty, S Nagaraja Rao