Health Ministry officials, who come to Orang Asli villages in mobile clinics, promise improved health and stamina but the side effects of their birth control injections can be devastating, according to an activist.

"The women in my village were threatened by nurses and told that they must take birth control, either in the form of pills or injections, failing which their medical cards would be confiscated," Nora Kantin, a Temiar villager, told Malaysiakini.

"Newlyweds among the community are especially targetted and forced to take the injections after having just one child...