PUTRAJAYA: There will be child daycare facilities at all government agencies by Jan 1 next year.
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said the ministry would audit the agencies soon, especially those with shift work, to ensure that crèches were set up.
She added that crèches should also be available at the district level.
“The government issued a circular in 1989 calling on federal and state (public) services to provide daycare facilities. This is not something new. So, the time for talk is over. It is time to do something,” she said.
Yeoh said the private sector had already been given an incentive in the form of a 10-year tax exemption on money spent on buildings for housing child daycare facilities.
She said the ministry would also propose that a Child Commission be formed to protect the nation’s children.
“This is one of the improvements that the ministry is looking into. A study will be carried out on the need to have such a commission that will report and make proposals to Parliament,” she added.
“I will also raise this matter with the deputy prime minister, who is the women, family and community development minister.”
Yeoh said the ministry would upgrade the Child Registry by expanding its coverage to include sex crimes, mental health and those with court and police records.
She said the registry was put in place to screen individuals who dealt with children, including babysitters, school security guards, school bus drivers and tuition teachers.
Yeoh also expressed her gratitude to the police for taking action promptly in the case of 5-month-old Adam Rayqal Mohd Sufi Naeif, who was found dead inside the freezer of his babysitter’s refrigerator about 11pm on Tuesday night.
The babysitter and another woman have been remanded for seven days.
The babysitter had told Adam Rayqal’s parents, Mohd Sufi Naeif and Farrah Madihah Othman, both 28, that a man had picked up their child. She said she thought the man was Mohd Sufi Naeif.
The couple lodged a report at the Gombak district police headquarters at 8pm and highlighted their search for Adam Rayqal on social media.
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