An interesting finding on the employment pattern of the SEZ units surveyed is that nearly forty per cent of workers are women and 76 per cent of those hired are local people. In fact, new generation SEZs (formed after the SEZ Act came into being) employ far more women at 55 per cent of the workforce as compared to the old Export Promotion Zones like Kandla that have been converted to SEZs, where women constitute 30 per cent of the workforce. The new SEZs are also creating more jobs for semi-skilled workers as compared to the EPZs.

Interestingly, the study, based on interviews with different stakeholders and visits to 14 of the 27 SEZs operational by the first half of this year, found that though the SEZ Act vests the powers of the Labour Commissioner onto the SEZ Development Commissioners, in many SEZs in Cochin and Jaipur, inspectors from the State Labour Department are also visiting SEZ units.

Another contentious issue the report has dwelled on is the size of SEZs. The idea behind specifying only minimum size for SEZs with no upper cap in the SEZ Act, 2005, was to allow SEZs to develop world class infrastructure.

However, the study argues that the two subsequent decisions by the empowered Group of Ministers on SEZs headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to cap the maximum size of SEZs at 5,000 hectares and leave the issue of land acquisition to the private sector developers “are contradictory.”

... contd.