According to an estimate, about 3.5 lakhs persons across 21 districts have been displaced and have lost their occupation since the SEZs came up. According to a study by the Indian Community Welfare Organization, 10 lakh persons were displaced due to SEZs in 2002, 25 per cent were from Dalit families. An article in Express Buzz.

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Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have literally wreaked havoc in the lives of Dalit women. Unemployed Dalit men are migrating to the city in search of employment, but at the receiving end are the women who have to cope with the loss of livelihood, not to mention the social discrimination in their villages.

Vasantha says that the displacement affects especially the Dalit women because agricultural labour in villages involves equal number of women force and primarily from the Dalit community. Jobless Dalit men are forced to leave the villages in search of employment in the city. Left alone, Dalit women suffer in the villages and live the life of a “single woman” literally being at the receiving end of poverty and social discrimination. Migration of Dalit men to the city has caused insecurity for Dalit women who face rigid social discrimination at the villages, says a member working for Dalit women in the districts. The government’s promise of allocating five cent land to Dalits has not reached them, she alleges.

The complete article can be found here.