While the complete data on the 40,000 shop-floor workers employed in the 18 operational SEZs is being put together, numbers from two SEZs in Andhra Pradesh are in. Obtained by The Sunday Express, these show that beyond attracting investment, these zones are creating employment opportunities which are both “local and inclusive.”

In the two sector-specific SEZs of Gitanjali Gems and Brandix Textiles, 80-85 per cent of the employees are from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). A majority of them have education up to the Class X level.

Speaking to The Sunday Express, Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai, who recently visited some of the operational SEZs in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu said, “There is more to Special Economic Zones than land acquisition, alleged scams and revenue losses. To judge the actual impact of the SEZs, one has to look at the actual ground realities.”

For instance, at the country’s largest gems and jewellery SEZ set up by Gitanjali Gems at Ranga Reddy district in Andhra Pradesh, of the 700 women and 300 men undergoing training currently, nearly 6% belong to Scheduled Tribes, 23% to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 58% come from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The SEZ is expected to hire nearly 5,000 employees over the next year.

“Most of the workers come from landless families, have been unemployed for some years and live within a radius of 4 km from the SEZ. Just getting a job is a big morale-booster for their self-esteem and transforming their families’ outlook for the future. Employment numbers alone can’t capture this,” Pillai says.

Similarly, at the 1,000-acre Brandix Textile SEZ in Visakhapatnam district, set up through a $150-million investment from Sri Lankan textile major Brandix, nearly 19% of the employees undergoing training are from Scheduled Castes and over 60% are OBCs.

Brandix is expected to hire 30,000 employees by next year and over 60,000 employees by 2009 as per its Memorandum of Understanding with the state government.

“The key is to attract investment into backward areas, where a large proportion of the population belongs to Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. It’s the locals who will get most jobs, not people from the cities,” says Pillai, who expects this trend to have an even more dramatic impact when the multi-product and IT SEZs start operations. About 100,000 new jobs are likely to be created in SEZs by June 2007.

Not just jobs, workers are also picking new skill sets that could set the stage for future entrepreneurial ventures. For example, at the 127-acre Apache Footwear SEZ set up by Adidas in Nellore, athletic shoes would be made for the first time in India. “This skill will be learnt by the Indian workers in the SEZ. With the experience, workers would be in a position set up a unit on their own or as a co-operative in the future,” the Commerce Secretary said.