Former deputy women, family and community development minister Hannah Yeoh has called on newly sworn-in Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to establish a ministry specifically for children.
"Ismail Sabri needs to prioritise the wellbeing of children. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020, the population of children is about 30 percent in most states, with the Federal Territory coming top at 38.5 percent.
"This is a sizable group and they are indeed our future and our greatest asset, and the Covid-18 pandemic has exposed and amplified the weaknesses of our country’s system to adequately protect children," the Segambut MP said in a statement today.
"The wellbeing of our children is under severe threat during this prolonged lockdown," she added.
Yeoh (above) pointed out that food baskets provided by the government did not include milk for infants and toddlers.
"After more than a year of battling Covid-19, the Perikatan Nasional government woke up to the need of identifying children who were made orphans by the pandemic," she said.
Yeoh said that even prior to the Covid-19 era, children in Malaysia were already facing many challenges and violations such as child abuse, sexual acts against children and neglect.
She said during the Pakatan Harapan administration, the government had appointed the first Children’s Commissioner, launched the first child sex offenders registry, provided millions in grants to establish childcare in the workplace for our civil service, launched infographics for childcare providers and parents, partnered with Google to bring awareness videos on "bad touch versus good touch" for young children and provided WhatsApp services for Talian Kasih to make it more accessible.
"All the above would require dedicated resources and manpower in protecting our children.
"As such, we had then launched a study on creating an Agency For Children and we were also working on increasing multiple folds the 208 child protectors we have.
"Currently, a child protector takes up 80 children’s cases leaving them insufficient time for follow-ups," she added.
Yeoh said the actual ratio of protector to children is 1:45,142 and this is simply impossible for the protection of children to be effective.
"There were also preliminary meetings being held to restructure early childhood education and care (ECCE), recommendations for the Home Ministry to simplify citizenship procedures for children involving Malaysian mothers, adoption process, foster care and data sharing with the police.
"If so many meetings can be called to jostle for positions amongst the prospective ministers, surely our children deserve their attention. If the PN government then could pacify 32 ministers and 38 deputy ministers with a portfolio each, it would not be impossible for Ismail Sabri to fulfil the immediate need for the formation of a Children Ministry," Yeoh said.- Mkini
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