THE Temiar Orang Asli want the Health Ministry to stop giving their women birth control pills and injections after complaints that they have been forced to take them.

Community leader Anjang Aleuj told The Malaysian Insight that they expressed their wish to the Perak chapter of Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) in a meeting last week.

“During the meeting, our Temiar women told Jakoa that they do not want birth control pills and injections.

“Jakoa said they will bring up this matter to the Health Ministry,” he said.

Anjang, who is a representative of the Kg Sg Papan Orang Asli villagers, said Jakoa will also arrange a meeting between the tribeswomen and the health department.

“We are waiting for a date to be fixed for that meeting but at the meeting, we will bring up this issue,” he said.

The issue became prominent after the women of the Termiar tribe in Gerik, Perak, said they had suffered from side effects, such as fatigue, uncontrolled appetite and leg cramps, after being forced to take birth control pills and injections.

Some even claimed their children were born with defects because of the accumulated effects of the contraceptives given after they gave birth at government facilities.

The Health Ministry programme began during Barisan Nasional but is being continued by the present Pakatan Harapan administration.

They added that nurses who prescribed these pills did not tell them what the side effects were but insisted that they take the medicine as it was to “stop them from having children”.

Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad reacted by saying that contraceptive injections given to Orang Asli women are aimed at protecting them from risky pregnancies.

He said the birth control initiative under the ministry is carried out responsibly to protect the indigenous women from conditions, such as anaemia, during pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Perak Jakoa director Kamarul Nizam told The Malaysian Insight the department has no authority to ask the ministry to stop giving the contraceptives to the Orang Asli women.

“We can only make the request but if they refuse to do so, we can’t force them,” he said.

His department will wait for the outcome of the ministry’s inquiry into the matter before stating its stand. – July 22, 2019.