KUALA LUMPUR: A new study in Malaysia has revealed startling facts about child abuse in the country. The report says that the largest percentage of child abusers in Malaysia were the parents of the children. Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Heng Seai Kie said Saturday that last year 44.3 percent of child abusers the parents. And mothers were worse abusers than the fathers. “Mothers made up 25.4 percent of perpetrators in child abuse cases while 18.9 percent were fathers. Together, parents made up 44.3 percent of child abusers in incidents recorded last year nationwide,” she said in her speech at the third national conference of the Association of Registered Child Care Providers Malaysia (PPBM) in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. This has been consistent for the last three years. She said parents should learn to strike a balance between work and parental responsibilities. “I don't blame mothers completely. Some mothers have to juggle their career and family and are burdened by multiple responsibilities,” she said, adding that fathers should to chip in with home duties to reduce the pressure on mothers. Heng also revealed that child abuse statistics from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur were constantly above 50% of the total cases in Malaysia. On another matter, she said the ministry hoped to increase the percentage of children enrolled in child care centers from the current 4 percent to 25 percent by 2020. “This is in line with the Government's policy in encouraging the participation of women in the work force. One of our objectives is to increase the number of women from the current 41 percent to at least 55 percent of the total work force by 2015,” Heng said, adding that one of the challenges for women to have a career was their responsibility towards their children. She said that in order to set up more child care centers, the Government offered incentives to corporate bodies and government agencies to establish such facilities at the work place. Heng said a RM200,000 incentive was given to government agencies while private companies were offered a tax deduction of 10 percent from their annual income for 10 years by the Finance Ministry to set up child care centers.
