“The cramped, close quarters – some units are home to eight or nine people – and loss of income has also given rise to an increase in crime and domestic violence,” she said.

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“We have eight blocks, one block has 17 floors and each floor has 27 units. That means over 3,670 households, and we received enough funding for only a small portion of this,” Farah said.

The government’s lockdown will last until at least April 14, by when it hopes aggressive testing will have helped turn the tide against the disease. About 50,000 tests had been done so far in a population of 32 million, Director General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a televised briefing earlier this week.

Until the lockdown is lifted, NGOs and civil society organisations say they are doing their best to help keep society’s most vulnerable people ticking over, but many are reporting an uphill struggle. Initially the government barred these groups from delivering aid or food directly, demanding instead that they go through the welfare department and rely on the civil defence forces to distribute goods.

While Malaysia’s economy relies heavily on these groups, they are often poorly treated with some commentators describing their working conditions as debt bondage and modern day slavery. Asylum seekers are not legally allowed to work, attend school, or access public health care, so many turn to informal, low-skilled labour to get by. Complaints of police harassment are common.

“Many of us are cautious when it comes to sending food to homes due to the fear of harassment,” child rights activist Hartini Zainudin said. “Pregnant mothers who are about to deliver have no funds to pay hospital bills. Husbands have lost jobs. People are being driven out of homes because they can’t pay rent. Children who have no access to Wi-fi or tablets or smart phones are losing out on education.”

Meanwhile, social distancing was “almost impossible” for people in poverty, said Hartini, pointing to the contrast between this group and middle-class Malaysians with easy access to food-delivery apps, steady pay cheques, and access to e-learning.

“Many live in close quarters as it is, so many have lost their jobs and have to stay home and information doesn’t come easily to them.”

This was echoed by Glorene Dass, executive director of women, migrants and refugee rights group Tenaganita.

“How can it be possible to socially distance in these situations? Many migrant workers live 20 to 30 in an apartment,” she said. “Refugees often live in similar situations – these are the communities we are really worried about. What is happening in prisons or detention centres? What about undocumented workers?”

WE’RE GOING BACK TO THE FORESTS

Meanwhile, some of Malaysia’s Orang Asli, or indigenous people, have blocked the entrance to their villages with logs and taken refuge in the surrounding forests, reported Reuters.

Among the poorest and most vulnerable groups in Malaysia, the Orang Asli have a poverty rate of over 30 per cent compared to the Malaysian average of 0.4 per cent.

“We are going back into the forest, to isolate ourselves and find food for ourselves,” Reuters reported villager and activist Bedul Chemai as saying. “We know how to get food from the forests and there are some things that we can plant there.”

The first infection in an Orang Asli was discovered last week, resulting in an entire village being locked down.

MENTAL TOLL

Mental health was also an issue, said Nazihah Muhamad Noor, a research associate and public health expert at the Khazanah Research Institute.

“The pandemic is likely to cause added mental stress for many, particularly for those anxious about job security. The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research predicts that the number of job losses could total 2.4 million, of which 67 per cent would be among so-called unskilled workers,” said Nazihah. “These are also the workers who would be least likely to weather this storm without a source of income.”

A loss of access to food, depleted incomes and poor living conditions were the biggest concerns for these groups, said economist Christopher Choong, deputy research director of Khazanah Research Institute.

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“Most are either self-employed or have small businesses and won’t have access to formal protection measures like social security or private sector savings plans, while the closure of informal morning and agriculture markets will affect their access to affordable food.”

He said there needed to be long-term solutions to poor living conditions, but that short-term improvements could include providing hand sanitiser and face masks or working with NGOs to help deal with mental health and domestic violence issues.

“Actually, asking the residential community themselves what are some localised solutions would be great as well,” he said. “They can be very resourceful and know how best to address their community issues.”