SA Indians moving up

From indentured poverty to the upper rungs of economic ladder

AS South Africans recall the arrival of the first indentured labourers in Durban 153 years ago, the country’s people of Indian origin can look forward to the promise of prosperity over the next two decades.

So says economist Dawie Roodt in his new book, Tax, Lies and Red Tape. He says falling fertility rates, rising skill levels and low unemployment rates are contributing to the growing economic success of South African Indians.

In the next 20 years, the group should enjoy economic power equal to that of the country’s white population. Roodt told the Sunday Times Extra that currently “the average South African Indian income is approximately twice the average South African income”.

A report released by the South African Institute of Race Relations in April said the average monthly wage of Indian earners in 2011, at R6 800, was second only to that of whites (R10 000), and followed by that of coloured earners (R3 030) and African earners (R2 380).

Roodt said that South African Indians “have reached a natural self-supporting threshold where women, in particular, are better skilled and are entering the workforce”.

This follows a sudden fertility decline in the group in 2001. He believes the rising success of the demographic “should be applauded” as “an example of a people who uplifted themselves from very poor beginnings” through education. It also meant they need no longer qualify for black economic empowerment, he said.

Historian Goolam Vahed agreed that an emphasis on education had been a driver of South African Indian achievement, but he cautioned against assuming all members of the demographic enjoyed the same quality of life.

“There are vast class differences between those who live in affluent areas and can afford to send their children to study overseas and the working-class Indians who increasingly find avenues to jobs and education shut. This is a major problem because, from the time the indentured arrived, there has been a massive emphasis on education.

“Communities usually rallied to build schools [called state-aided schools]. Education was key to economic mobility, but this is less of an option for many in the postapartheid period where government education policies discriminate against the poor.”

Many young people today had more education and career options but limited opportunities to pursue them, he said.

Anthropologist Gerelene Jagganath said education and employability in fields requiring high skill levels had helped to change the role of South African Indian women. “I think education is still a very strong focus of every Indian family in the country.”

Thanks to the inclusion of female children in the communitybuilt schools that have proliferated since the 1920s, women over time have been increasingly able to pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated jobs.

“I think Indian women have made amazing strides from then to now. Not too long ago, women were considered not equal. Your whole identity revolved around the fact that you would one day be a mother and a wife only,” she said.