Poverty prevents 5,000 Indian children from studying in M'sia

Poverty and lack of birth certificates are preventing at least 5,000 children from the local ethnic Indian community from attending schools, Malaysia's Human Rights Commissioner has said.

Poverty and lack of birth certificates are preventing at least 5,000 children from the local ethnic Indian community from attending schools, Malaysia's Human Rights Commissioner has said.

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Further, only about 39 per cent of ethnic Indian children attended kindergarten, local Tamil daily 'Makkal Osai' quoted Malaysian Human Rights Commissioner (Suhakam) N Siva Subramaniam as saying.

The reasons for this state of affairs are poverty and lack of birth certificates, which is necessary for admission in schools, he said.

Eight per cent of Malaysia's population comprises ethnic Indians, a majority of whom are Tamils.