PUTRAJAYA: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is looking at a tax rebate initiative as an incentive to entice parents to join parenting courses.
Its Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh said the ministry is currently in talks with relevant agencies on tax rebate consideration for those who signed up for parenting courses.
“At the ministry, we want to focus more on parenting skills. We are looking at how to make parents join parenting courses to ensure Malaysian parents to take more responsibilities,” she told a press conference after launching the Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management programme, here today.
Yeoh also proposed that the Road Transport Department (JPJ) included parenting aspects in the driving school curriculum to enhance knowledge pertaining to children passenger safety practices to create awareness about children being left in cars and dying from heatstroke.
On the issue of vaccinations, she said although there were many calls now asking to criminalise parents for not vaccinating their children, there were some parents who still did not vaccine their children and exposed them to unnecessary risks.
She also urged Malaysian adults to start being sensitive over the safety of children and to report to the authorities whenever they see a child exposed to any risk.
Yeoh also called on the community to change their indifferent culture especially when it involved marginalised and vulnerable people such as children, old folks and people with disabilities (OKU) to protect them from being exposed to risks.
“There are so many situations where these people cannot speak up for themselves, and that they need the help from the community to ‘stop, care and ask’ and reports to the authorities,” she said.
Yeoh was commenting on several cases of child abuse and fatalities as well as reports of an old folks home in Seremban which had allegedly neglected and abused its residents in the past two years.
On the old folks home in Seremban, Yeoh said a comprehensive investigation by the Welfare Department is being carried out and based on the initial report, the name of the home owner had been changed. - Bernama
