PETALING JAYA, July 3 — Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk T. Murugiah had a cultural shock when he visited the Cameron Highlands Hospital maternity ward recently and found Orang Asli mothers as young as 11 and 12 years old.
The shock aside, what worried him more was that these minors were ignorant that they needed to register the births of their babies.
He said these girls would soon return to their homes in remote villages and the babies would remain without a birth certificate.
"This will pose a problem not only for the child and the parents but also the government in later years," he said.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Putra Heights residents in Subang Jaya near here, Murugiah said he would bring up the issue of non-registration with the National Registration Department to see if it could appoint a special officer to handle such cases.
He said similar cases existed in Sabah and Sarawak and solutions needed to be found to avoid problems later.
He said that the number of complaints received by the Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) annually about children without birth certificates was high and it was quite a task to solve some of these cases. — Bernama
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