As of October this year, the rate of domestic violence cases in Perak has gone up to 57 from 36 in the same duration last year, which was an addition of 21 cases (equivalent to 58 percent).
According to the State Executive Councillor for Women Development, Family and Community Welfare, Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin Wan Noordin, primary causes for occurrence of violence in households include tension and environmental influence due to the implementation of various stages of the Movement Control Order.
“It’s an inevitable circumstance for family members to get involved in arguments, no matter the seriousness of issues,” she told reporters when met at Nur Sejahtera Clinic along Jalan Dato Onn Jaafar today (November 26).
“Besides that, the implementation of various MCO stages since late March this year has seen an expected surge of cases involving household abuse.
“I would like to stress that the government and the Social Welfare Department (JKM) are constantly on the lookout for issues like this.
“JKM is always ready to provide guidance in the form of counselling to any household members who were involved with domestic violence,” Wan Norashikin said.
Meanwhile, Wan Norashikin assured that no domestic violence cases were reported at Taman Meru 2C since the residential area was declared an Enhanced MCO (EMCO) zone on November 20.
“Should any cases be reported, JKM will be on standby,” she added.
Out of 12 districts in Perak, five recorded the highest increase of domestic violence cases in comparison to last year, which are:
- Larut, Matang and Selama (from three cases in 2019 to nine this year)
- Hilir Perak (from none to six)
- Batang Padang (from one to five)
- Manjung (from three to six)
- Perak Tengah (none to three).
23 cases have been referred to the district social welfare office as of October this year to seek counselling advice, compared to only one in 2019.
Chris Teh
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