Professor Mahendran S Nair of Sunway University, speaking at an online forum, said the Indian community should be part of a broader network and not isolate themselves to discuss issues surrounding poverty.

Mahendran also said according to the 2020 labour force data, close to 65% of the Indian community have skills that are becoming out of date particularly in a rapidly changing technology-driven economy.

Only 17.1% of the community have some sort of tertiary education, 86.1% are employees in four main sectors: manufacturing, wholesale, transport and clerical jobs, and most of these people are in low-end jobs.

He said there should also be more awareness from the Indian community to participate in educational programmes set up by the government in order to further improve themselves.

“Career counselling is also very important. The economy is shifting very rapidly and the younger generation needs to be able to get into some of these training programmes so that they can get more opportunities and skills in this economy,” he said.

Mahendran said the Indian community has to really start thinking about plugging into the system and finding ways to get maximum returns from all the resources that are already available.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said skills training was very important especially for youths in order for them to improve their knowledge and be able to get better jobs in the future.

He also said there should be a platform of support for B40 Indian women who are independent entrepreneurs to help them achieve success in what they’re doing.

Another forum participant, associate professor Shanti Thambiah of Universiti Malaya, said there should be discussions about the participation of Indian women in the labour force.

Shanti said there has been a huge regression of Indian women in the workforce as compared to other ethnic groups. “What is happening? We need to help them. If we ignore this group now, the future is very bleak for the Indian community,” she said.