Yayasan Chow Kit’s Hartini Zainudin said the country’s social protection system does not include marginalised and poor communities, who often have no access to formal aid.

“The aid for these communities is usually from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or local community efforts. But these efforts are not structured and lack a thorough system to record those in need of assistance, meaning many have fallen through the cracks,” she told FMT.

Hartini was responding to the recent death of two Myanmar boys, aged four and two, in Langkawi, who are believed to have died after eating food scraps from a rubbish bin.

She said the government must establish a strategy to map out who needs aid and where they are.

“Food is a basic right, belonging to everyone,” she said.

Srividhya Ganapathy, the co-chair of the Child Rights Innovation and Betterment Foundation, said the current systems of placing children in care were haphazardly run and often independently funded with little monitoring from the government’s social welfare department.

She called for urgent measures to develop systems for children in care.

“Parents and families, irrespective of nationality or status, should be provided better support and resources,” she said. “Children of homeless persons should be monitored and where possible, removed or relocated from the streets into shelters.”

Srividhya said government, private corporations and civil society organisations should collaborate to provide support and mentorship for children of vulnerable communities.