Empower yourselves for Malaysia’s wellbeing, Nancy tells women

 

Women, family, and community development minister Nancy Shukri said women form the backbone of modern society and must properly equip themselves, not only financially.

PETALING JAYA: Women, family and community development minister Nancy Shukri has called on all women in the country to bring positive change to society by empowering themselves.

She said women form the backbone of modern society and must properly equip themselves, not only financially, but also with sufficient information to combat and eliminate all forms of abuse in their communities.

Nancy said her personal desire is to see all Malaysian women become “informed citizens”.

“When a woman is well-informed, she has the power to act (and will know) what can be done when something happens to them or occurs within society,” she said in an interview with FMT.

The minister said each woman must take the initiative to be well-informed of her rights and the availability of channels where she can report incidents of abuse that may take place within their community.

She said the ministry’s “SKUAD WAJA”, established in 2021, was aimed at providing women across the nation with critical information that will help them serve as protectors of their respective communities.

“We train them to assist in communities. So when something happens, they know who to call to make a report.”

Nancy said between January and May 2023, the welfare department (JKM) handled a total of 2,959 cases of physical, sexual and emotional child abuse.

Of that number, 647 cases were reported in Selangor, the highest across all states in the country, followed by Sabah (333) and Kuala Lumpur (326).

Between 2020 and August 2023, a total of 22,908 cases of domestic violence were reported nationwide, with Selangor, at 4,690 cases, again recording the highest number.

Meanwhile, Nancy said the responsibility of looking after the welfare of children in the country should not fall solely on her ministry as its officers are already overwhelmed on a daily basis with cases of child abuse.

“They have to work not only in safeguarding the victims but also in handling police reports and conducting field visits.

“They also manage situations whenever cases of abuse arise, they need to attend to these incidents first hand. Hence, we don’t have enough manpower for the scale of the tasks at hand.”

Nancy, who has helmed the ministry since December 2022, is grateful that the unity government has given due importance to tackling abuse by distributing key tasks across several ministries.

“We have the National Social Council chaired by deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, which (has) eased my concerns about mobilising my ministerial colleagues (to tackle a number of issues involving women and children).” - FMT