"Growth Engines or New Capitalist Enclaves?" (A Photo Documentation of Special Economic Zones and Industrial Corridor Projects in Andhra Pradesh)- by Dr. Usha Seetha Lakshmi.

This compilation of photo essays is aimed at providing a counter point to the dominant claims around the largely private capital, SEZ-led, industrial growth model being promoted by the Government from a multi-dimensional lens. These visual testimonies from the ground seek to focus on the “other side” of this growth process, drawing attention to the attendant negative costs involved and the displaced poor who are compelled to bear these costs. The facts weaved into these visuals clearly demonstrate that far from boosting economic activity, creating any new infrastructure or employment, these engines of growth have in fact become the new capitalist enclaves, grabbing lands belonging to the poor, encroaching on local resources, eroding a diversity of livelihoods and cultures and taking a free ride on wholesale tax, tariff and infrastructural incentives offered by the State which has in fact been created through public investments and tax payers money.

According to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, 25 lakh persons would be provided employment (both direct and indirect) in the State once all the SEZs become operational. Out of 76 SEZs notified so far, only close to 30 zones have become operational and the Employment generated in these SEZs is to the tune of 54,774 people. More than 60% of the employment projected and realized again is from IT/ITES sector alone. As against 70,000 crores of investment projected in the SEZs, only Rs.10,000 crores has been realized to date. While the government claims that most of the SEZs are being set up in backward areas, evidence from the field again reveals that a majority of these SEZs as well as industrial parks and corridors are concentrated around big metro cities and towns or close to ports, airports and highways in the State, which offer a good connectivity and locational advantage to the developers of these projects.