By Hadi Azmi

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Malaysian mothers are being pressed into acting as “personal debt collectors” as fathers refuse or fail to pay child maintenance, a study published this week has found, with weak enforcement in the country’s sharia courts identified as an aggravating factor.
The 2024 Telenisa Report by women’s rights group SIS Forum, released on Tuesday, is based on findings from cases handled by its free legal aid clinic throughout last year, which largely helps low-income Muslim women seeking advice on divorce, maintenance, custody and violence.
The latest study, the ninth edition since 2016, found that 42 per cent of cases were related to child support, with half of them caused by fathers refusing to pay child maintenance and not complying with court orders.
“The struggles we see at Telenisa every year show one thing clearly: women and children continue to pay the price of weak enforcement of maintenance and gaps in the justice system,” group executive director Rozana Isa said.
“Without reforms – like a child support agency and better legal aid – too many families will remain trapped in cycles of poverty and injustice.”
Latest available statistics from the government recorded more than 57,000 divorces in the country in 2023, with over three-quarters coming from the Malay Muslim community.
While the rate declined from previous years, it is in tandem with the drop in the number of marriages during the same period.
According to the 2020 Census, there are almost 1 million single mothers in Malaysia, but fewer than a fifth are registered with the women’s development department, leaving most cases invisible in official systems.
Of this demographic, nearly all working single mothers are in the bottom 40 per cent of the income group, with more than half living below the poverty line despite holding jobs.
The sharia court in Malaysia, which governs family law for the country’s 22 million Muslim majority, has long been criticised for weak enforcement against fathers who fail to pay child support, leaving many mothers chasing ex-husbands through slow and inconsistent court processes and with little protection when men refuse to comply with maintenance orders.

Lawmakers have raised issues with the system, with Penang state assemblywoman Nurul Syazwani Noh saying it “forces victims onto a winding, difficult path just to claim the rights that Islam has already guaranteed them”.
“We need strong, just and unambiguous laws that protect women and children. Efficiency in the legal system is not optional – it is a necessity,” she argued.
SIS Forum is therefore advocating for the creation of a child support agency to manage such payments and enforce compliance – including direct debits from salary cheques – as well as to set up an interim fund for mothers awaiting arrears.
The idea received support from senior parliamentarian Teresa Kok, who said that Malaysia could not let fathers walk away from their responsibilities while children suffered.
“Malaysia must establish a federal child support agency, like those in Australia, the UK and Canada, that enforces payments through wage deductions or travel restrictions,” Kok said on the release of the report.
“Such a framework will protect children, reduce the burden on our courts, and strengthen families.”