They said properly trained personnel would see cases investigated, handled and reported more appropriately.
Yayasan Salam CEO Ananti Rajasingam said there had been instances where welfare department (JKM) officers let off abusers with a warning and these offenders relocate to escape detection.
“In such an instance, the child abuse case goes unreported,” she told FMT, adding that such incidents occurred because the officers were not properly trained.
JKM child protection officers were meant to remove the children and house them in a safe place while carrying out thorough examinations and investigations, she said.
Ananti was responding to a recent report by the women, family and community development ministry on national child abuse statistics.
More than a thousand child abuse cases were recorded nationwide in the first half of this year. Of these, 706 cases involved girls and 349 boys. More than 400 were sexual abuse cases.
Activists have cautioned for years that under-reporting could be an issue in the country’s child abuse statistics.
Activist James Nayagam said the government should train social welfare officers to handle such cases.
He said he once lodged a child abuse report and the officer manning the hotline was unprofessional in his response, making him feel “awkward”.
The hotline officer allegedly asked him to get more information and settle the case himself.
“Officers at the hotline must be trained to professionally handle the calls,” he said.
He suggested that teachers be roped in to help with child abuse cases, especially in obtaining information.
“Teachers can be trained to be facilitators. They can use art, role play and other means to get students to share their experiences,” he said.
A spokesman for the ministry’s corporate communications department told FMT there was regular training for hotline staff to ensure they had the right skills and attitude to handle calls on child abuse cases.
He said the public could help improve social welfare services by giving input through the ministry’s public complaints management system (SISPAA). They can also send emails to [email protected]