Community service for parents who neglect children - Rohani

The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development has proposed for the Children's Act 2001 to be amended to include community service as a sentence for negligent parents who cause their children's death.

Its Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim said the suggestion has been forwarded to the Attorney General's Department.

"We feel the need to create a new form of punishment other than a prison sentence as there're so many cases (of neglect).

"Perhaps they can carry out community service for a few hours, undergo counseling and parenting sessions," she told reporters after visiting the Bukit Aman police headquarters in the capital, Monday.

Present were Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and his deputy Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin.

Commenting on the visit, Rohani said the ministry would step up its collaboration with the police to strengthen enforcement, especially in cases where children were forced into begging.

She said the Children's Act 2001, Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, and the Destitute Persons Act 1977 would also be tightened.

"We have discussed the issue of children begging at food outlets and will look into joint efforts to curb this," she said.

The ministry had saved 240 such children and issued bonds to 19 parents for negligence since 2010 to last year, said Rohani.

Meanwhile, on a separate note, Khalid said 11,571 or 10.4 percent of the 120,000 personnel in the police force nationwide were women.

"We will recruit more women annually to achieve our target of 30 percent," he said.