Raja Zarith: Educate kids to protect themselves from predators

JOHOR BARU: A child protection policy is necessary in schools to ensure children are aware of ways to protect themselves from sexual predators and paedophiles.

Johor Permaisuri Raja Zarith Sofia Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah said the cases of physical and sexual abuse against children were worrying.

“Most of these cases are committed by those known to the children, including their friends, neighbours and people they meet online,” she said at the launch of the TinDAK campaign here yesterday.

Based on statistics from the Welfare Department, the number of child sexual abuse cases for last year was 1,034, 978 cases in 2015 and 984 in 2014.

Raja Zarith said that it was everyone’s responsibility to safeguard children from being exploited.

The TinDAK campaign is a statewide intervention campaign dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

The campaign is spearheaded by the Johor Women’s League or Jewel with the support of the Johor Women’ s Development Department.

The first phase of the programme involved a close collaboration between Jewel and the state education department.

Between April 9 to 13, the TinDAK team travelled to all 11 education districts statewide to conduct training for all school counsellors from 906 primary schools.

Meanwhile Jewel programme chairman V. Thanam said that paedophiles and sexual predators were way ahead of the enforcement agencies and sometimes used religion to gain the trust of their victims.

“This has already become rampant in neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and western countries.

“It is just a matter of time before it becomes a huge problem here too,” she said.

She said the authorities need to be forthcoming with their facts and figures and not sweep this problem under the carpet.