Nancy symbolically presenting Socso pension payment to a widower, Mohd Mumin Ardie. On the right is Socso Sarawak director Tan Phang Chia.
KUCHING (Feb 1): Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri hopes the next national Budget will prioritise her ministry to better tackle cases of abused and abandoned children.
Nancy said she had previously suggested setting up a children department under her ministry to specifically look after the welfare of children, especially those who have been abused or abandoned and being placed at children protection institutions.
“We hope additional allocation will also be given to upskill and train the guardians and caretakers at these children protection institutions to allow them to be equipped with the necessary skill sets to deal with children from unfortunate background,” she said.
Nancy told this to the press after handing over Social Security Organisation (Socso) pension payment to a widower at Kampung Bintawa Hilir, Petra Jaya yesterday.
Presently, the minister said there is only a children division under the Social Welfare Department but not a standalone department specifically set up to protect the rights of children.
She further said a children’s commission under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) operates differently compared with a children department as the former focused on providing professional services and expertise to the ministry and the courts.
Moreover, Nancy expressed her wishes for the next Budget to allocate funds for establishing a centralised system for her ministry to compile information related to the welfare of the community.
“The centralised system is not just about collecting information related to abused children cases but it’s concerning the overall information and data with regard to the ministry.
“Right now, we do not have a centralised system and sometimes the departments under the ministry faced difficulties to communicate to each other and taking longer time to produce a specific data set requested,” she said.