Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Uzma Bashir sleeps most nights together with her cellphone beside her pillow. She usually wakes, to not verify her messages, however she is getting married in the summertime and is monitoring the value of gold.
“In [Indian-administered] Kashmir, gold isn’t just an decoration, it’s dignity. It determines how you may be handled in your in-laws’ house,” mentioned the 29-year-old, an accountant at a consultancy agency within the area’s foremost metropolis of Srinagar.
Bashir makes lower than $100 a month. She had hoped to purchase her wedding ceremony jewelry together with her personal earnings to keep away from burdening her dad and mom.
Throughout South Asia, the place patriarchy usually defines weddings, gold has lengthy travelled with a bride into her new house, not simply as an decoration, but in addition as safety from harassment – and even violence – as in-laws usually demand a hefty dowry from the bride’s household.
“How a lot gold a girl owns usually turns into equal to how she shall be valued,” Bashir advised Al Jazeera. “My dad and mom have already achieved sufficient for me. However I can’t afford even a single ring. It prices almost three months of my wage”.
‘Dramatic shift’
File gold costs this 12 months have hit jewelry purchases throughout South Asia, with the dear steel hitting a excessive of $5,595 per ounce on January 29 and at present buying and selling at round $4,861.
As India – the world’s second-largest shopper of gold – final weekend celebrated the favored gold-buying Hindu competition of Akshaya Tritiya, gold futures closed at $1,670 per 10 grams – 63 p.c greater than final 12 months’s competition.
The World Gold Council says demand for gold jewelry in India fell by 24 p.c in 2025 in comparison with the 12 months earlier than.
The surge in costs has additionally affected the way in which individuals plan their weddings, as jewellers report increasingly clients abandoning pure gold and turning as a substitute to imitation jewelry, gold-plated ornaments or lower-carat options.
Clients corresponding to Uzma Bashir, who found an idea known as “one-gram gold jewelry” – ornaments produced from base metals however coated with a skinny layer of 24-carat gold.
“For me, it has emerged as a lifesaver,” she mentioned. “Now I can put on it on my wedding ceremony day and nobody would level a finger”.
Many households throughout South Asia are additionally making that selection.
Fatima Begum, who lives in Laxmi Nagar, a dense working-class neighbourhood in New Delhi, is testing shops on the bustling Karol Bagh market, the place dozens of retailers specialize in imitation jewelry.
The mom of 5 youngsters is searching for a store promoting one-gram gold.
“How a lot gold can a middle-class household residing in New Delhi actually afford?” she requested. “My youngest daughter is getting married and I’m attempting to cut back the price of the marriage by changing actual gold jewelry with one-gram gold. I did the identical when my eldest daughter received married”.
Fatima mentioned when she received married in 1996, her father gave her almost 60 grams of gold, other than different items as a part of her dowry. “Right this moment, I can’t give even half of that to my daughters,” she advised Al Jazeera. “I’ve given them a few of my outdated jewelry together with a number of one-gram items, in order that they gained’t really feel embarrassed at their very own weddings”.
Shiv Yadav, a goldsmith working in Mumbai’s jewelry hub of Zaveri Bazaar for greater than three a long time, says the market immediately is more and more dominated by synthetic jewelry.
“If 10 individuals stroll into the store, just one finally ends up shopping for gold; the remainder flip to synthetic jewelry,” Yadav advised Al Jazeera. “I had by no means seen such a dramatic shift”.
Booming imitation market
In neighbouring Bangladesh, related financial pressures are redefining marriages. Final month, the value of 22-carat gold in Dhaka climbed to a file $2,200 per 11.668 gram (“bhori” within the native Bangla language), in response to the Bangladesh Jewellers Affiliation.
In a rustic with a per capita revenue of round $2,600, gold has merely turn out to be unaffordable for most individuals.
“I don’t suppose we will casually put on gold anymore, the way in which our moms used to. It has merely turn out to be too costly,” mentioned Sadia Islam as she browsed outlets in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar. It’s a busy wholesale hub, the place the Hazi Selim Tower alone homes greater than 100 jewelry retailers.
Retailer proprietor Enayet Hossain mentioned demand for imitation jewelry has grown sharply as gold turns into too costly for many. Smaller imitation gadgets corresponding to earrings value as little as 200 to 500 taka [$1.5-$4], whereas bigger units promote for a number of thousand, relying on the design.
“Clients need items that appear to be actual gold however value a lot much less, and the designs are sometimes extra different than conventional jewelry,” he advised Al Jazeera, including that lots of his merchandise are imported from India, the place imitation jewelry is a big business.
For Sadia Islam, security is one more reason to keep away from sporting actual gold.
“What if I put on actual gold to a marriage and it will get stolen?” she requested. “I can’t take that threat”.
As a substitute, she buys imitation jewelry to match particular outfits for household occasions. “So earlier than household features, I come to those outlets to purchase imitation jewelry that matches my garments,” she mentioned. “I really feel a lot safer sporting it”.
Actual gold for the elite
In Pakistan too, jewellers say pure gold jewelry is more and more turning into a luxurious reserved primarily for the rich.
Merchants say gross sales of gold jewelry have fallen by about 50 p.c over the previous 12 months. As costs enhance, many shoppers have turned to lower-carat choices, corresponding to 18 or 12-carat gold.
Others are abandoning gold altogether in favour of gold-plated jewelry.
“It’s not that we don’t wish to put on actual gold. After all we do,” mentioned Ayesha Khan as she shopped for jewelry for a household wedding ceremony. “However the circumstances in Pakistan are very tough proper now”.
Gold costs have reached round 540,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,938) per tola (11.668 grams). “That makes it not possible for peculiar households to purchase jewelry the way in which individuals used to,” Khan advised Al Jazeera.
Imitation jewelry, she added, permits households to protect the looks of custom with out the monetary burden. “It lets us nonetheless look elegant at weddings with out spending a fortune”.
The value distinction is stark. A gold-plated bridal set can value between 40,000-60,000 Pakistani rupees ($143-215). The identical design produced from actual gold can value lots of of hundreds and even tens of millions of rupees.
Altering attitudes
Again in Indian-administered Kashmir, Shabana Khan and her fiancé Shahbaaz Khan confront the identical actuality. Their wedding ceremony is anticipated in two months.
“I all the time dreamed of wedding ceremony jewelry,” mentioned Shabana from the distant Kupwara district. “However actual gold is simply too costly”.
Shahbaaz says Shabana had all the time imagined sporting a heavy necklace on her wedding ceremony day. “However I can’t spend $6,000 to $7,000 on gold jewelry,” he advised Al Jazeera.
After the couple got here throughout social media movies providing “one-gram gold jewelry”, they travelled to Srinagar, round 85km (53 miles) away, to go to a showroom there.
“The jewelry appeared identical to actual gold,” Shahbaaz mentioned. “A minimum of with this idea, she will be able to get pleasure from her dream”.
However one-gram gold jewelry doesn’t work for everybody.
Rihanna Ashraf, 40, grew up in a household of artisans that survived on conventional embroidery work. After her father died when she was nonetheless a baby, she began supporting her widowed mom and 4 siblings.
In the meantime, marriage proposals got here however usually resulted in the identical method.
“One household agreed,” she advised Al Jazeera. “My mom was so completely satisfied. However after we met them, they demanded gold price greater than all the things we had. The proposal fell by means of”.
Rihanna says she has heard of one-gram gold. “However what’s the profit? It isn’t pure. It doesn’t really feel genuine”.
She stays single, like almost 50,000 ladies in Srinagar alone who’re thought of “previous their marriage age”, in response to group leaders, as monetary obstacles, primarily gold, play a key position.
Nisar Ahmad Bhat, who runs a jewelry retailer in Srinagar, mentioned attitudes concerning jewelry are starting to shift, with increasingly households shopping for gold just for funding functions, whereas curiosity in symbolic substitutes grows.
“Folks need the happiness of sporting gold, however inside an inexpensive vary,” he advised Al Jazeera. “Gold will all the time stay gold. However individuals might start to see it extra as an funding, not as one thing they’ll casually afford”.
