R
Red 4
Guest
Thursday January 20, 2011
Life full of obstacles for women without IDs
LABIS: At two, her father left her with a family friend here but did not leave behind her birth certificate. Housewife R. Mageswary, who now claims to be 38, says she does not know her exact birthdate.
“I have never celebrated my birthday,” she sobbed, relating that the absence of a birth certificate had deprived her from getting an identity card, going to school, getting a job and travelling away from home for fear of being caught by the police.
“I do not even know how to read. I am also afraid of travelling far from my home in Segamat in case of police road block,” she said in between tears.
Desperate: Rubella and Annie holding up a document which states that Annie is not a Malaysian citizen.
Mageswary said she had tried many times, through her husband, to get her identification documents but all attempts had failed. Life had been difficult for Mageswary and others who are in the same predicament in Labis and elsewhere.
Widow V. Rubella, 37, whose husband died four months ago, said she had to do odd jobs to support her 10-year-old daughter.
“I do not have a birth certificate nor an identification card so it is next to impossible for me to even get aid from the welfare department,” she said, adding that the birth certificate of her daughter, D. Annie and two other children also stated they are not Malaysian.
Joining the conversation, Annie said her elder brother was now in prison because he could not produce his identity card during a roadblock. “He explained to the court about his predicament but he was still jailed,” she said, adding that her brother had been jailed several times for the same offence.
Segamat Indian Community Development Association secretary B.M. Baskaran said he has brought up such problems many times in the past 10 years. “I have helped to resolve 15 such cases but I believe there are many more that are still unsolved,” he said.
Asked about the issue, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong said the ministry would start an outreach programme to identify those who are affected by such problems. “The programme will start after the Tenang by-election and we will handle the issues on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
