In a squatter area adjacent to the Sungai Rasa toll plaza in Klang, a mother, her two teenage children and her aged father are living in extreme poverty. Not only is she without an identity card, her children also have no birth certificates.

Home to them is a wood-and-cement structure which is so dilapidated that it has gaping holes in the rotting wooden walls.

Half the corrugated zinc roof has been blown away by strong winds and each time it rains, the house turns into a muddy pond with barely enough dry area for the family to sleep on.

The kitchen has a single stove and a rack of plates and glasses. The rest of the area is bare and covered with dried mud. The bedrooms are in a worse condition with no furniture or fittings.

Chitra (not her real name), 38, who can only move about slowly due to a debilitating disease that has weakened all her four limbs, said sorting her identity card problem is the least of her worries. She has been asthmatic since 10.

Disturbing news

She sent her youngest two children to live with a family in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, who promised to send them to school.

"I can't even buy food, much less send them to school. That is why I sent them with this church group."

But she hasn't seen her 12-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter for three years. The twin of the 10-year-old had died some years back.

"I only talk to my son over the phone. He is in Standard Six now," she said when met recently.

But she is disturbed by his last call recently. "He told me he was being physically abused. He also said that his sister was stopped from attending school.

"My father now wants them back but my situation here is so bad that I'm totally helpless," she said, looking as helpless as the tone of her voice.

Extreme poverty has also prevented Chitra, who lives in Kampung Jawa, from collecting her IC, the absence of which had denied her eldest two children birth certificates.

Firstly, she can't afford to pay the RM310 imposed for a delayed application of IC despite being approved about four years ago. Secondly, she has no one to help her with transport and assistance.

"I certainly can't pay the fine and no one, not even neighbours or my siblings who live nearby, are willing to help us. I have no way of getting to Shah Alam to collect my IC.

"My eldest boy, 15, and girl, 14, never went to school because they have no BC."

Since her husband left them 10 years ago, the family has no stable income. "We have been surviving on charity, eating rice mixed with water and sometimes with a little bit of dhal."

"My father used to earn a little working at an estate and later doing odd-jobs as gardener or grass-cutter but he stopped working last July.

"He's almost 70 and can't do much... now, we have no income at all," she said, offering some kind of explanation of the state of neglect of their house in the absence of able hands to help with repairs.

Exorbitant charges

A grassroots volunteer who is helping with the documentation for Chitra and her children, said most local politicians are wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.

"They know that the family is poor and yet they offer to help for a hefty fee, sometimes to the tune of a few thousand ringgit.

"How can a poor family afford anything even close to that sum?" asked the volunteer on condition of anonymity. "We're trying to help them on a humanitarian basis and engage the welfare wing of a political party."

In an adjacent area to Chitra's home is another family - a 27-year-old mother and her four young children - with similar problems.

Malliga never had an IC.

"I was raised by my aunt but she didn't apply for a BC but my brother was luckier," she said when met at home. She was married at home because of the IC problem.

She has three girls aged 12, eight and 18 months, and a 11-year-old boy. Her third child, however, has no BC because she was born at home.

"I managed to register the other three who were born at Klang Hospital." Desperation drove Malliga to use a photocopy of her cousin's IC. "She doesn't know about it and I really feel bad about it now.

"But I intend to tell her all about it soon because I want to change the mother's name on my children's BCs to mine. At the moment, I'm not registered as their mother."

She said someone had promised to help her get the papers for a fee of RM2,000. "I've paid the full amount, but it has been 18 months with no results. I spoke to him a few days ago and he promised to settle it by the end of this month."

Helpful teacher

Malliga's husband has an IC. "He does wiring work on a contract basis. I stay home and tend to the children." All of her children, except for the one without the BC, are going to school.

"My third child is unofficially in Standard Two, thanks to an understanding teacher who is helping us. But I don't know how long more she will be allowed to remain in school.

"If I have an IC, the first thing I will do is settle my children's documentation. I would not be scared to leave home for social functions."

Originally from Banting, Chitra said she had even approached an MIC assemblyperson about her plight.

"It's been fours years and we haven't heard anything from her."