THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN UNDER THE INDENTURE SYSTEM: A STUDY OF THE ASIAN WOMEN & FERTILITY

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on the plight of the Asian women migrants, largely migrating from the regions of China and India during the period of Indentured labour system (1830’s – 1920’s) to the plantations spread all across the world. The major plantation crops included tobacco, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee etc. At all these plantation sites, the management required huge masses of cheap labour force to extract maximum profit out of the business. A portion of the labour force comprised of migrant women workers working actively at the sites/fields and earning their livelihood. Women in all these regions braved really harsh conditions due to the penal contract and other terms of working rules that they were subjected to. The instances of gender discrimination were quite prevalent. The recruitment policy was such that planters mainly preferred an able bodied male worker. Women were merely 25% of the labour force recruited. The working conditions were harsh and discriminatory against women. There was a huge wage differential in male and female payments. There was widespread violence against women due to their shortage on the plantations. Male workers often indulged in fights related to women. Marriage as an institution was weak and not adhered to as women preferred to leave one partner for another. Education was not considered as beneficial for women as was evident from the widespread reluctance of indentured parents to send their daughters to schools. The lack of education among women prevented them from taking up professional employment opportunities. There were many instances of revolts among women too against the stringent conditions of the penal contract although women were not that open about them as their male counterparts were. Authors Silvia Pedraza, University of Michigan and Jon Pederson, University of Pittsburgh in their respective case studies on the living conditions of the indentured female labour class have revealed that traditionally social class relationships and the capitalist mode of production have been most frequently mentioned as the main source of oppression and victimization of women on the plantations while both gender and race were viewed as additional aspects which merely intensified the degree of atrocities being faced by them. Oppression is being described as a limitation of freedom by the use of coercive power by those sitting on a more superior platform. Author Lucie Cheng Herata, has also explored the dimensions of prostitution and sex trafficking that was prevalent during the same period. Prostitution performed double economic function for the management. It helped to maintain the labour force of single young men, which was actually in the interest of the management which otherwise would have to pay higher wages to labourers with families to support. In addition, prostitution also enabled the entrepreneurs to extract large profits from the work of women under them and thus helped to accumulate considerable profits for their investment. Further, in multiracial areas, prostitution of minorities or colonized groups also provided cheap labour for the plantation themselves.