Despite the efforts of the Malaysian government, which were initiated in the 1990s to reduce the poverty level in Malaysia, many population groups and areas in Malaysia still require government support. The poverty level among fishermen, for example, has reached a critical level that requires immediate government support. There are a great number of factors for the failure of government intervention, one of which is insufficient information concerning the local living conditions. As a means to mitigate such failures, this study applies the Alkire and Foster multidimensional poverty index to a set of deprivation dimensions identified through a survey on Malaysian fishermen. The survey includes dimensions that are often missing, such as economic exploitation, physical safety, empowerment, and psychological wellbeing. The findings show that young Malaysian fishermen are more often multidimensionally poor. The results also show that the poverty of females employed as fishers or in fishing related work is greater than males in terms of insurance, health, and education. We found that multiple domains of deprivation complicate the efforts to tackle poverty among fishermen in all Malaysian states and ethnic groups, thereby requiring a more comprehensive and coordinated approach by the government.
