The Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Ministry is concerned with sexual crimes in our society, more so against women and children.
“It should be nipped in the bud as women and children, being the basis of a stable family institution, should be protected rather than abused,” said its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah in her winding-up speech yesterday.
“From PDRM’s statistics, 253 sexual crimes were recorded. Of the number, 199 (78.6%) were against children and 51 were found to be pregnant,” she said.
“We find that 58 (26%) of the 233 suspects are children. This is worrying as children are not only the victims but they are also the perpetrators,” she added.
Fatimah, who is also Dalat assemblywoman, pointed out that one of the steps taken by Sarawak Social Welfare Department (JKMS) was developing a system to check whether individuals were sexual crime convicts.
“The ministry realises this problem and it is important that all sides synergise to solve this particular issue,” she said.
“Randau Social Development, which starts this year, aims to empower community with knowledge and awareness on social development to create a resilient community,” she added.
Fatimah pointed out that the programme also served to expose the community to current social issues, spread social development issues to the rural communities and create social awareness in line with #careforsarawak campaign by the ministry.
