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Source: Roopnarine, Lomarsh. Indo-Caribbean Indenture, Resistance and Accommodation, 1838-1920

Paraphrased notes on Indo-Caribbean Women:


 * The Indian government and the Colonial Office set up a quota system that dictated how many Indian women came to the Caribbean. The ratio of female to male Indians coming to the Caribbean was for many years extremely low, 3:100 in 1938. (pg. 91)
 * Reasons not many Indian women went to the Caribbean: It was more acceptable in India for men to leave and seek work. Women were not encouraged to do the same. The medical examination administered on Indian women moving to the Caribbean was invasive and involved inspection of genitals. Many women would not have wanted to submit to the examination and many men would not have wanted this to happen to their wives. It was more expensive for agents to recruit Indian women than men, because not many Indian women wanted to leave India. (92)
 * Colonialists saw indentureship as a temporary replacement for the labor that had previously been done by enslaved African people. They did not want Indian men and women to start families to come and start families, which would establish Indian culture and people as a lasting presence in the Caribbean, undermining the power of the indenture system to control all aspects of the laborer's lives and keep them subjugated. (94)
 * In 1870, the quota called for 40 Indian women for every 100 Indian men, a quota that often was not met. In total, 25% of all Indians who emigrated to the Caribbean were women. (91) In the late 1800s, there was a change in policy. As indentureships ended, the Indian men were given small parcels of land. Indian people were now being encouraged to settle in the Caribbean by the colonial government so they could be used for cheap labor on the sugar plantations. The late 1880s saw competition in the sugar industry from European beet sugar, and the colonial government knew that having a settled, immobile group of Indian people to exploit for labor would be highly profitable and advantageous in the competition to dominate the sugar industry. Encouraging Indian people to stay in the Caribbean also cut the costs required to send Indian people back to India. (94)
 * Under the indenture system, married Indian women were excused from work on the plantations and planters were required to give these women medical care and rations. However, the colonial government did not recognize Hindu or Muslim marriages until the 1940s, so many married women were categorized as single and did not receive the few privileges given to married women. Married women who did not have to work in the fields took care of children and expenses. (94-95) Women who worked were paid less than men. (95)