Abstract: In the era of Globalization, most of the developing countries are witnessing a shift from an import substitution strategy to export promotion policy. Export processing zones (EPZs) acts as a key instrument in promoting exports as well as contributing to the economic growth of the economy. In India, they are called ‘special economic zones’ (SEZs). The Special Economic Zones (SEZ) policy was announced in India in April 2000, which intended to make the SEZ an engine for economic growth with minimum possible regulations and has its genesis in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) scheme. The concept of empowerment flows from the power. Empowerment of women mean equipping women to be economically independent, self-reliant, have positive esteem to enable them to face any difficult situation and they should be able to participate in development activities. This study aims at examining the role of women participation in SEZs in India and it also examines the impact of SEZs on export promotion and investment enhancement in India along with the various suggestions to improve the role of SEZs in India. The methodology used is based on secondary data collected from various Bank websites, RBI reports, Journals, etc. The findings of the study evidences that women’s share in total employment of SEZs is substantially higher than both the economy as a whole as well as the manufacturing sector outside the SEZs. The tremendous increase has been seen in the increase in the exports and Indian government’s flexibility towards SEZ reform (SEZ Act, 2005) as part of its economic strategy has resulted in increased investment in the sector. Thus SEZ’s is an important strategic tool to facilitate investment inflow, promote exports and generate employment.
Keywords: Export processing zones (EPZs), Special economic zones’ (SEZs), Globalization, Export Processing Zone (EPZ).
Title: SEZ’s and Women Empowerment in India
Author: Dr. Deepti Narang
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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