PETALING JAYA: The federal budget should have provided more money to hire and train more police officers for the sexual crimes unit, a Sabah women’s group said today.
Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group (Sawo) president Winnie Yee welcomed the RM21 million allocation for social support centres but said the money would make little difference if state agencies were not given the same amount of support.
She said such centres could only offer limited service unless they worked hand in hand with frontliners such as doctors and police.
“Counselling and social support can only go so far. At the end of the day, women and children facing domestic violence need a place to stay or to be treated in hospital. To take legal action, you would need the help of authorities who are properly trained,” she told FMT.
Yee said more funds should have been channeled towards hiring and training more D11 sexual crime officers, as well as improving the services of the One Stop Crisis Centre at public hospitals.
She welcomed the RM3 billion allocation to ensure internet connectivity for the B40 group. “It’s good news that they have quite a big budget for better connectivity, but there’s no point in providing credits for the rural people of Sabah when they cannot access the Internet.”
She said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and other relevant agencies must think about how to connect communications towers with villages.
Nisha Sabanayagam, programme and operations manager for the All Women’s Action Society (Awam), said funds should have been allocated to tackle gender-based cyber violence, especially online sexual harassment.
She hoped that some of the RM27 million for cybersecurity could address these issues, as Awam had seen a steady increase in online sexual harassment cases since 2018.
“In many cases, it takes a long time for MCMC to take action and take the image or video down, because of the lack of personnel and capacity. We hope that with these funds, something can be done to hire more manpower and provide training to officers to handle such situations.”
Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Sumitra Visvanathan said there was no mention of the Women@Work incentives for women returning to the workforce, which was announced in the 2020 budget.
Noting that the female unemployment rate had increased by 5.5% following the Covid-19 pandemic, Sumitra urged the government to consider the needs of women who have left the labour force in technical and vocational education and training.
“This is a missed opportunity as the pandemic has forced more women out of the labour force due to care for their dependants. If left unaddressed, this group of women will find it harder to re-enter full-time work, or will have to accept a diminished pay status,” she said. - FMT
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