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Kuala Lumpur. Girls as young as 11 were giving birth among Malaysia’s indigenous Orang Asli, or “original people,” a new report has claimed.

The New Straits Times daily newspaper quoted a senior government official as saying that he had been shocked during a recent visit to the Cameron Highlands region, in Pahang state, to find mothers as young as 11 and 12 years old in the maternity ward of a local hospital.

The child mothers were all from remote Orang Asli communities, the newspaper reported.

The official, T. Murugiah, was also quoted as saying that many of the mothers returned to their home villages without first obtaining state birth certificates for their newborn babies.

“This will pose a problem not only for the child and the parents but also the government in later years,” said Murugiah, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

The Orang Asli, which is actually a grouping of a number of ethnic groups native to the Malay peninsula, make up less than 1 percent of Malaysia’s population and are disadvantaged in terms of income, health, education and living standards.

Jaafar Jantan, a public relations officer with the government’s Orang Asli Affairs Department, told the newspaper his agency would work closely with the registration department to help the community secure the birth certificates.

As for the issue of child mothers, “it is still accepted in their society to start a family as soon as one hits puberty,” Jaafar added.



Agence France-Presse