Kuala Lumpur, June 10 (ANI): The highest number of child abusers turn out to be the hand that rocks the cradle - the victim's mother, a shocking new study has revealed.
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Heng Seai Kie said that statistics from the past three years had revealed that most child abusers were parents themselves and in particular, mothers.
"Mothers make up 25.4 percent of perpetrators in child abuse cases while 18.9 percent are fathers," the Star Online quoted Seai Kie as saying in her speech at the third national conference of the Association of Registered Child Care Providers Malaysia.
"Together, parents comprise 44.3 percent of child abusers in incidents recorded nationwide last year," she said.
Seai Kie said that the third largest number of child abusers at 11 percent of the total number of cases were the lovers of teenage victims.
Children are defined by the ministry as those aged below 18.
Parents should learn to strike a balance between work and parental responsibilities, she said.
Seai Kie also revealed that child abuse statistics from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur were constantly above 50 percent of the total number of cases in the country.
On another matter, she said the ministry hoped to increase the percentage of children enrolled in child care centres from the current 4 percent to 25 percent by 2020.
"This is in line with the Government's policy of encouraging the participation of women in the workforce.
"One of our objectives is to increase the number of women from the current 41 percent to at least 55 percent of the total workforce by 2015," Seai Kie said.
She added that a major challenge facing women who wanted a career was their responsibility towards their children.
She added that to set up more child care centres, the Government had offered incentives to corporate bodies and government agencies to establish such facilities at the workplace. (ANI)
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