Going by the East Asian experience and other developing economies, special economic zones could significantly improve women employment in India.

For instance, in 1990 women constituted 70% of the workforce in export processing zones (EPZs) in South Korea, while according to a department of commerce study, currently women constitute 40% of the working population in SEZs in India.

A study conducted by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier) titled Impact of SEZs on Employment, Poverty and Human Development, says women constitute a higher proportion of the working population in SEZs at 25% than in the organised sector. The unorganised sector, however, employs the highest number of women at 34% in the country.

According to analysts, SEZs could effectively pull women out of the unorganised sector and create more jobs for new female entrants, with higher level of income and also impart greater skills. ?Going by the current findings, SEZs could prove to be a very potent tool for gender employment,? said Pradeep Mehta, director general of Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS).

?The SEZ project and the many benefits it promises means a new sense of security for women. I have been telling women to get ready to join this industrial boom,? said Manju Devi, sarpanch of Budhera village, on Reliance?s multi-purpose SEZ coming up at Jhajjar, Haryana.

The Nokia SEZ in Tamil Nadu, where women constitute 50% of the workforce, recruited girls with secondary education and in the 16-21 age group, after imparting a three-month training.

Also 70% of employees in a gems and jewellery park in Hyderabad are girls, who came from families of landless agriculture labourers.

SEZs are also raising hopes amongst womenfolk of the hinterland. The report cites that an international study stating women?s share to total employment in SEZs to be substantially higher than both the economy as a whole as well as the manufacturing sector outside the SEZs. Employers prefer female workers to male workers in the belief that manual dexterity, greater discipline and patience make women more suitable for the unskilled and semi-skilled activities carried out in the zones.