HALF of the babies born out of wedlock here last year had Malay mothers.

Compounding this worrying trend for the community - the high number of Malay
teenagers aged 19 and below who gave birth.

These figures were contained in the latest annual report on registration of
births and deaths.

There were 495 babies born last year who had only their mothers' names
registered. Out of these, 248 were given birth to by Malay women - an increase
from 240 a year earlier.

A total of 6,491 Malay babies were born last year.

The figure of births out of wedlock among Malays has risen steadily in the last
10 years - up from 126 births, or 30.1 per cent of all such births in 1997.

In contrast, the number of Chinese births registered without the father's name
fell from 221, or 52.7 per cent in 1997, to 158, or 31.9 per cent last year.

For Indian births registered without the father's name, the figures were 51
births, or 12.2 per cent in 1997, and 52 births, or 10.5 per cent last year.

According to the report, of all the 495 babies registered here last year
without the father's name, over a third of them had teenage mothers.

The report said that overall, there were 838 babies born to teens aged 19 and
below last year. This would include those who were married and those who were
not.

Of this total, 462 were to Malay teenagers, making up 55.1 per cent of all teen
births.

This is a slight dip from the overall 853 such births in 2005 - 485 of whom
were to Malay teens aged 19 and below.

Mr Yusof Ismail, chief executive of Ain Society, a Muslim voluntary welfare
organisation, said many of these young parents come from lower-income families
and are caught up in a sexually permissive subculture.

"So while sex is a taboo topic in the community, it happens because peer
pressure in these circles says that if you are 17 and still a virgin,
something's wrong with you," said the youth counsellor.

Noor (not her real name) came under such pressure at the age of 15 and became
pregnant with her daughter.

Now 23, she said: "Some of my friends were telling me how good it felt and I
got influenced...I should have been more careful."

Over the past two years, community groups have started a help- line and five
drop-in centres for troubled teens.

Said Ms Khairunnisah Abu Bakar, 24, a counsellor at a centre in Yishun: "Many
of these teens lack support from family or a listening ear, and the centre is a
place they can turn to for information and advice."

Last year, self-help group Mendaki also spearheaded a campaign to get teens to
say no to sex.

zakirh@sph.com.sg

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