Family Wellness Club Held Talk on Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect
Photo: Family Wellness Club Facebook
19 October’s talk on Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect saw a good mix of people from different backgrounds, including from religious and spiritual organisations as well as tertiary institutions.
At the outset, the emcee Vida Wang requested the participants not to raise religious or political issues.
The speaker P. Mangaleswary, advocate and solicitor, said that after the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, which Malaysia ratified; our very important legislation, the Child Act 2001, was formulated to protect children from abuse and harm from the very people caring for them.
She then described a few cases reported in the Malayan Law Journal where parents, babysitters as well as providers of Children’s Homes had been convicted of abuse and neglect and sentenced to prison terms from 5 years to 12 years under Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001.
The speaker also added that SUHAKAM, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, had in 2020 called for more severe punishment, especially for those who left children alone for hours in their cars that resulted in the deaths of the children. There were still too many such cases.
On the other hand, there had been some criticism of the sentencing to prison of poor single mothers from the B40 group under Section 33(1) of the Child Act 2001 for leaving their children alone at home without supervision when the mothers had to go out to work. It was noted that these women from the B40 group cannot afford to send their children to childcare centres.
To tackle this dilemma of poor single mothers, it was suggested that the government set up free childcare centres where those from the B40 group can send their children to be cared for while they were at work.
Finally, parents who send their children away to study in residential schools should ensure that they maintain close contact and communication with their children to monitor if their children are being taken care of well in the residential.schools, and not subjected to any abuses there.
There was a lively Q and A session at the end. Many participants found the talk informative and said they had learnt a lot.
