New Act may replace Child Act 2001

Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said over 70 percent of the Child Act 2001 needed to be amended to increase its content relating to parental neglect of children.

"Since the amendments made are more than 70 percent, it shouldn't be called amended Act but better be called a new Child Act 2015," she told reporters after officiating at the 17th Kiwanis Annual Children's Party, here, Sunday.

She said the new Act would focus more on parental neglect, unlike the Child Act 2001.

She said the Act would impose a heavier penalty on parents found guilty of neglecting their children and hopefully, would serve as a lesson to parents before doing anything that would jeopardise their children.

She said the ministry had submitted the draft amendments to the Child Act to the Attorney-General last year but it was returned to the ministry for legal fine-tuning.

"We need to get advice from the Attorney-General's Chambers on the legal aspects and I hope the bill will be tabled in Parliament by the middle of this year," she added.

Meanwhile, on the case of a girl who was found weak and hungry in a flat in Sungai Dua, Penang, Rohani said the seven-year-old girl was being treated at Seberang Jaya Hospital.

"We want her to be taken care of first before further action is taken because I see that she is thin and malnourished," she said.

Last Thursday, the Standard One pupil was found weak and hungry in a flat which did not have water and electricity supply following a police report lodged by a teacher who suspected something amiss when she did not turn up in school.