ANN/THE STAR – The rising number of child abuse cases in Malaysia, occurring both within homes and at welfare centres, has brought to light a critical issue that can no longer be ignored. These incidents have laid bare significant shortcomings within the country’s social welfare system.
A major concern is the shortage of trained and qualified social workers, both in care centres and within the Social Welfare Department (JKM). This gap has hindered efforts to provide proper care, support, and intervention for victims of abuse.
The urgency of the situation was underscored by a recent high-profile scandal involving alleged sexual abuse and exploitation at facilities operated by Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH), reportedly affecting over 500 children.
This alarming case has sparked renewed demands for comprehensive reforms within Malaysia’s social work sector.
Leading the call for change is the Malaysian Association of Social Workers (MASW), which has been advocating for the passing of the Social Work Profession Bill for 14 years.
This proposed legislation aims to establish a regulatory framework for social work practice, ensuring that professionals are adequately trained to handle complex cases of abuse and neglect, and ultimately strengthen the safety net for Malaysia’s most vulnerable children.
The Heroes Among Us Campaign led by MASW and Unicef Malaysia expounds that social workers require in-depth knowledge on human behaviour, social systems, laws and policies to assist clients in navigating complex structures like the court system, as well as providing psychosocial care and support.
Overburdened system
MASW honorary secretary Amy Bala said the current welfare system was overburdened and unable to cope with the increasing number of child neglect or abuse cases.
According to data from JKM, in 2023, the number of child abuse or neglect cases stood at 8,041, a 19 per cent increase from the year before and double what it was compared with a decade previously.
“Rescued children all suffer from some form of trauma and need long-term support. Who is going to give this to them?
“In the Petaling district alone, there are five contract workers and two senior child protection officers employed under JKM. These seven people cannot possibly cope with the current number of cases,” she told the source.
With limited resources and staff, she said child protection officers were often forced to prioritise responding to immediate crises over prevention and follow-up.
She said this resulted in children being sent back to unsafe environments without adequate support, leaving them vulnerable to further harm.
According to the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), Malaysia has only one social worker for every 8,576 persons, far lower than other countries, said Amy.
“All care centres must be equipped with at least one qualified and trained social worker and support system in place.
“We also need to ask why the children were put in these homes in the first place? Based on the reports, we can presume that some of the parents sent their kids to these homes for religious education, not realising their children were being abused,” she said.
Amy added that the current situation was a good platform to request for more qualified and trained social workers.
Various reports stated that the rescued children were placed in safe houses operated by JKM. What is worse is none of the parents of the rescued children have claimed their offspring.
“There are not enough resources to help these children, who could end up being victimised again in the welfare institutions because JKM does not have enough social workers,” she stressed.
Raising workers’ credibility
MASW has worked tirelessly to push the Social Work Profession Bill because social workers want to be recognised as professionals which will raise their credibility, and it will ensure better remuneration for them.
“Once they are recognised as professionals, there will even be a salary structure.
“The Bill will ensure the beneficiaries, in this case the children, will get the best service from trained and qualified social workers.
“It will set the benchmarking, which will have their job description, and courses they need to attend.
“With what has happened in the recent case (with GISBH), it is clear that Malaysia does not employ enough trained social workers,” she said.
Amy stressed that it was also a tall order to depend on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to mentor social workers.
“They still need hand-holding, and these are social workers who are three to four years on the job.
“MASW has social work educators and practitioners as our members and we conduct training and hold webinars. We also collaborate with NGOs to raise the skills of their social workers.
“To continuously advocate, we partner with decision-making bodies especially with JKM,” she said.
According to MASW, currently there is no data on the total number of professionally-trained social workers serving vulnerable populations in Malaysia.
Finding her true calling
The lack of professional recognition and adequate compensation for social workers is a significant barrier to this problem.
However, that has not stopped a case worker at the Openhands Fellowship Care Centre in Kajang from pursuing her calling to become a trained and qualified social worker.
Thirty-three-year-old Latha Sharmila Subaramaniam is currently in her last semester to obtain her Diploma in Social Work at Methodist College Brickfields.
For the past 13 years, she has invested her time as a volunteer to 11 girls at the home.
“It is challenging to listen to the children’s problems, and this is when I realised that in most NGOs, none of us are qualified as social workers.
“I have a genuine keen interest in the well-being of children because I was taken away from my family when I was a child.
“The pain of having to leave your own family to go live in a shelter is terrible.
“No one will understand them (the children) better than I.
“I know what I can do to find the right support system for them,” she said.
Latha said feelings of pain and abandonment were the only feelings she knew when she lived in a shelter.
She revealed that Openhands founder and director G. Anbalagan, who has experience in caring for children for 40 years, had played a major positive role in her life.
“He didn’t give up on me, so I shouldn’t give up on the children,” she said.
Latha said many people had the wrong impression about social work.
“They think social work is similar to doing charity; it is not like that.
“Social work is a holistic and long-term process that involves biological and psychosocial assessments and it also involves the environment, family and community to properly plan the child’s life,” she said.
Latha said it was frustrating that Malaysia had yet to pass the Social Work Profession Bill when there were various public and private universities that offer social work education including Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
“It’s important to possess the professional knowledge in this field, but there are people who don’t want to study the course because the profession is not recognised,” she added.
Anbalagan said Openhands existed to help abused and neglected children.
“We provide holistic restoration to the children. They come to us in a bad state; if a child experiences 10 years of abuse it could take just as long for them to heal. We emphasise this to our staff.
“Sometimes we push beyond our ability to restore the child with the help of JKM and hospitals.”
Aside from emotional support, Anbalagan said Openhands had written policies to instil in the children education, nutritious food and medical care.
“Some of the children did not attend school when they were with their family. We work towards putting them back into the education system,” he added.
