Child marriage common among Indian workers

KUALA LUMPUR - Child marriages are common among the Indian community in the rubber estates in Malaysia’s Negri Sembilan state, a Hindu priest has said.

Tamil language daily Tamil Nesan quoted a 78-year-old temple priest, who wished to be identified only as Velanaranie, as saying that he had solemnised five child marriages.

Two of the brides were only 12 years old.

“During the last six months, six teenagers eloped because they were either forbidden by their parents to marry or had become pregnant,” he said.

As a result, many Indians in the estate have children whose births were never registered.

Thousands of Indians took up work in Malaysia’s rubber estates during the British era and have stayed on.

A large portion of them are poor and uneducated. Multi-ethnic Malaysia is home to about 1.7 million Indians, a bulk of them Tamils.