Recent cases show victims of domestic violence now include educated women and urbanites
KUCHING: Sarawak registered 79 more cases of domestic violence between January and June this year, against those recorded in the corresponding period last year.
Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the latest trend indicated that such
violence also struck educated women and those residing in urban areas.
Gone were the days when domestic violence happened only to uneducated women who mostly resided in rural areas, she told a press conference here yesterday.
Fatimah was pleased to note that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced to set up a taskforce to study the issue of sex crimes, particularly the rape of children.
“In Sarawak, we started our own way last week. After meeting with the police, we are going to have a standard operating procedure (SOP) on how we should handle domestic violence cases.”
She said One Stop Crisis Centres (OSCCs) had been set up at hospitals to help victims of domestic violence.
“Now, we want to tighten things up. OSCC is where victims would be treated away from public eyes. A special room is provided for
them because they are in trauma.”
Fatimah said the SOP would involve getting an examination done on the victims, followed by the hospital alerting the state Welfare Department, lodging of police report, the provision of counselling and even application for an IPO (interim protection order) from the court to prevent the perpetrator from harming the victims further.
She said her ministry would collaborate with not just the police, but also the state Health Department to address domestic violence more efficiently.
She pointed out that the examination conducted at hospitals could serve as evidence in court later.
The state Education Department would also need to play its role, Fatimah said, since teachers could observe whether a child registered a change of behaviour as a result of domestic violence or rape.
“If a child is abused or raped, the child is sometimes fearful to relate the incident to someone. The child will be withdrawn and different from usual.”
She added that the Social Development Council, which now comes under her ministry, would help conduct a research on how to bring down the number of domestic violence cases.