V - Rubber Estate Production

Summary

It was noted earlier that in the various strategies to obtain secure, cheap and malleable sources of labour for rubber plantations, ethnicity and gender were two focal points of consideration. Indian labour was recruited directly by the colonial government and came to constitute the majority of estate workers by the 1930s. However, Chinese labour (as well as Malay and Javanese labour) was also recruited, to a lesser extent, by private employers and through free immigration for estate work. Thus, in 1907 there were 5,348 Chinese making up 9 per cent of the total estate workforce of 58,073 and this proportion increased to 19 per cent in 1911, 26 per cent in 1919, 25 per cent in 1929 and 24 per cent in 1935 (calculated from Parmer 1960, p. 273). By 1947, rubber production was one of the largest sources of employment among the Chinese after mining and services. Within the estate workforce, Chinese workers comprised the second largest group after the Indians.

Despite the colonial government's attempts to control the overall supply of Chinese labour, it encouraged the free inflow of female Chinese labour. This was part of the overall aim to expand the agricultural population particularly for rubber estates through local family formation and to thus ensure a more stable and permanent work force. By 1933, female and child labour constituted 34 per cent of the estate labour force, the proportion increasing to 45 per cent in 1947 and 47 per cent in 1957. Chinese women made up the majority in these totals after Indian women, followed by Malay and Javanese women. Chinese women made up 5 per cent (5,267) of the total female workforce in 1921 and this proportion increased to 9 per cent (13,715) and 25.5 per cent (45,738) in 1931 and 1947 respectively (Del Tufo 1949, p. 113).

The absence of restrictions of female immigration led to a steady growth in the number of Chinese women working and living in the estates, especially during the 1930s' influx of female immigrants.