KUCHING: The federal government essentially agreed to establish a special institution to oversee the welfare of Malaysian children, as recommended by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).
Federal Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said she voiced her views on the matter during the recent Cabinet meeting, which resulted in a general consensus.
“At the ministry, it is our duty to organise and determine once more whether it should become an agency.
“Because there is already a section for children under the Department of Social Welfare (JKM) in our ministry, but it may need to be improved.
“For that reason, our officers are in the process of looking at this matter so that it is specific to children only and we can wholly focus.”
She told reporters this after her visit to the MamaCare Mini Spa at the Kuching Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here on Thursday (Dec 29).
On the same note, Nancy mentioned that there were a number of institutions under the ministry that assisted in the care and protection of children who are abuse victims in relation to the cases of child abuse that are growing in the country.
But, she said the task of ensuring the wellbeing of children who have been abused fell under the purview of the entire society and not solely the ministry’s job.
“We are a little concerned since it is bad for us that incidents like this have grown so common.
“I’ve talked with officials at the ministry about looking at this from the perspective of childcare as a whole.
“That’s why for me, we need to have a programme to empower the community.”
Nancy pointed out that discussions had been held with non-governmental organisations to see areas that can be improved involving children issues.
As a minister, she believed that since child abuse was not the only problem impacting children, swift action was required to address it.
“Following our discussion, we have a lot of work to do, including figuring out how to keep the children in our care occupied.
“For me, as a minister, we need swift action and very strong legislation,” she stressed.
