Children in PPR most neglected group

PETALING JAYA - Children residing with their families in the People's Housing Project (PPR) have been identified as a group that is most neglected in terms of emotion and education.

Childcare centre Shelter Home general manager Chris Fan revealed that this was due to lack of attention from parents who were busy making end meet.

He said children living in PPRs even dared skip school as they thought their parents would not find out what they were doing.

"Parents are busy at work, there's no one to take care of the children and they don't even know that their kids often skip school," he said.

He said parents, being too busy with work would affect the development of the child's learning as well as their emotion.

"Previously, we carried out a project at PPR Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya. I'm surprised that in the middle of the city, there are still pupils who don't know how to do basic calculations. There was also a case in Lembah Subang in which a nine-year-old child does not know how to spell his own name," he told Sinar Harian.

On child abuse, Fan said he was of the view that the unstable economic situation of the family especially the low-income group (B40) was also a factor in the increase in cases.

He said children were often used as a place for parents to vent their anger due to stress and financial constraints.

However, he said it was undeniable that physical and emotional abuse were not only high among the B40 group, but also among the M40 and T20 groups.

"We don't see all of this because the M40 and T20 families do not want to be embarrassed and would be ashamed if the public knows about the terrible state of their families.

"We also don't know about this because it was not reported," he said adding that the children under the care of Shelter Home were mostly physically abused.

PERIOD POVERTY

Meanwhile, awareness on period poverty was still low among the community especially for poor girls in the country.

International Islamic University of Malaysia senior lecturer in Sociology Dr Fatimah Al-Attas said the issue was important to highlight as it affected half of the population in the country.

"This issue of menstrual poverty may be worse experienced by girls and women who were poor due to the pressure from the economy itself.

"Maybe they do not have access to products (menstrual care), access to clean water or good environmental infrastructure.

"Or perhaps they don't have access to the right knowledge about menstruation and that has an impact on the understanding and menstrual care," she said in a speech on the ARBAtalk: Child Poverty in Malaysia programmed, here.