THE JEREMIADIC TIMES OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

THE JEREMIADIC TIMES OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

A lot has been said and seen in the ongoing debate over SEZ like their utility, importance and impact on the lives of countless people throughout the country and a public outcry has been raised over the callous manner in which rehabilitation of the displaced has been handled.

We have never had an appreciable track record as far as handling the delicate issues are concerned so really this does not come as a big surprise but yes the scale on which it has been allowed to happen is unprecedented. Further the government’s devil may care attitude reflected across party lines shows that the country’s leadership does not care for the ordinary citizens in whose hands has the power of the constitution been vested.

SEZ have been hailed as the panacea for several years of gross neglect of the country’s infrastructure as they are expected to build the basic infrastructure through the development that comes through the industries, a highlight of the industrial revolution but while this has worked well in countries that have followed a capitalist model from the very beginning it may well spell doom for a country that
a. Harbours staggering inequalities not only in incomes but skills as well
b. Has a huge proportion of illiterate people who can be primary targets for exploitation
c. Has a filthy human rights record as far as child labour is concerned
d. Has a human development index ranking of 114
e. Has corruption levels that are only better than Haiti, Togo

The idea of beautiful India even today is one of lush greenery and expansive stretch of paddy fields for many.
Such a place is Dhinkia in coastal Orissa where people are fighting a pitched battle against POSCO (Pohang steel company) that is bent upon of acquiring highly productive land and establishing a steel plant that would forever alter the landscape of that area for the worse that is for sure as this area is a part of the elephant east west corridor that extends up to Assam. The government there is showing remarkable insensitivity to the legitimate demand of the people to throw out POSCO from the area but the government is employing goons to evict people from the land on which their very existence depends.

The 4004 acres of land that POSCO needs is a mosaic of brilliant green betel leaf plantations, soaking wet paddy farms, cashew and coconut grooves. The sand and the sweet water below is any farmer’s delight. The 3000 plots of betel bear a bumper harvest for the farmer every day.
Already farmers are unhappy with the increasing water allocation for several industries along the coast. The POSCO plant requires 12000-15000 crore litres of water and all of this will come from reservoirs meant to irrigate fields.

Last year witnessed protests in the Sambalpur region where the waters of the Hirakud were supposed to irrigate the paddy fields but have ended up supplying water to industries than farmers. The question that the farmers here are asking that why take fertile, multi crop land for the purpose of industrialization when the Supreme Court has already declared in a judgement that only barren, unproductive land is to be made available for industries under the SEZ banner.

The bottom line however is that these are not even remote areas as they are within 125 km of the capital. This village’s plight is today the status of several areas in the country where in the name of development the environment and livelihood of several people mostly farmers is being conveniently swept under the rug and with it the future of an entire generation is being doomed. Take the land out of the hands of a farmer and he is reduced to the status of an unskilled labourer, this conventional wisdom is being overlooked.

I do not intend to say that industrialization spells only doom but even mismanaged good can cause only damage and this case only exemplifies this adage.

The Chinese lesson:
The very country that established Asia’s 1st SEZ today is showing the doors to several SEZ and is cancelling all the freebies that it had extended to all MNC’s that it once it welcomed with open markets and relaxed labour laws.

Here the concept has ended up creating greater inequalities thereby causing more damage in the process. Mao Zedong propounded the idea but today china seems to disagree with Mao’s wisdom. It has been seen in case of china that SEZ have ended up widening the inequalities that already existed.

For instance east of the yangste kiang a number of industries have cropped up but on the north, little or nothing has taken place also the environment there has taken a beating as the water of the river has turned a pale yellow and the entire area has been denuded of vegetation.

It has also been seen that MNC’s end up taking away 90% of profits and the remaining is spent on wages hence the country loses on both fronts i.e. environmental and capital, this has been dubbed as the flight of capital.

The Indian analogy:

In the state of orrisa development is taking place at the cost of nature something that has of late become more of a trend.
Especially along the eastern belt of the state smelters have come up at an alarming rate in blatant violation of regulations which has been aggravated by the displacement of thousands of tribal whose land has been taken up for quarrying and a myriad of other purposes solely aimed at decimating the soul of nature.

The exclusivity of the concept of SEZ itself reeks of inequality and further strengthens the premise that exclusion can never be sustainable or logical to achieve development.