Community Consultations and Setting up of Community Centres

During the past two months of June and July 2004, community consultations were conducted in a number of areas with a high concentration of an Indian population. The purpose of the consultations was to determine the locations for the set up of the Project's next phase of Community Centres. Ten locations in suburban Malaysian cities were identified through mean of secondary data research. The locations that were categorised included those with high a proportion of Indian population but with low infrastructure development such as public transport, educational facilities and health care services.

A series of public consultations were thus conducted in Buntong (Ipoh), Rasah Jaya (Seramban), Shah Alam (Sri Moda), Semenyih, Taiping, and Rawang. The consultations were conducted through means of participatory discussions in order to appraise the problems faced by the community. General issues that were identified and commonly expressed by the communities were: domestic violence suffered at the hands of partners; alcohol and drug abuse by either husbands, children or other close family members; work related problems; exploitation of workers especially those working as maids; low income; lack of job opportunity and congested homes.

It was also brought to attention that youths are becoming increasingly alienated from the mainstream society and getting involved in substance abuse and dropping out of schools. Some take to crime , and are joining groups and engage in various forms of violence. Another raised issue was the fact that there are many single mothers who are struggling to bring up their children with their small salary. Some of them want to work from home by doing some small scale business but do not have the necessary skills.

Another crucial issue that was raised in many of the areas among women was marriage registration. Many women are married without a registration. Due to this, they are unable to get birth certificates for their children. This prevents the children to continue their education to the secondary level. Girls as old as 21 years of age still do not have a birth certificate. In addition alcoholism was mentioned as another major issue characterized in most Indian concentrated areas, with cheap home-brewed liquors easily available. Alcoholism usually leads to other problems, particularly domestic violence and other crimes.

In social and economic terms, it was concluded that Malaysian Indians suffer from major disadvantages as summarised below:

• high levels of unemployment and a high dependence on lower- paid and unstable categories of employment;
• below the average educational levels of the people in the communities;
• serious health problems; and
• little direct benefit from the continuing development of the Malaysian economy.

The findings from these consultations, coupled with secondary data obtained previously, confirmed the need for Community Centres that would cater to the needs to develop and empower the Indian women in the communities in order to bring about improvements in the communities as a whole. After a number of consultations it was concluded that Rasah Jaya, Rawang, Semenyih, Buntong and Taiping were the areas that could benefit most from the set up of Community Centres. Accordingly, Centres were set up in these districts and became operational in August 2004.

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