Reach out to the caregivers

TWO videos that went viral this week showing extreme cases of child abuse reportedly in a kindergarten are so revolting that it would take a long time for those watching them to regain their composure.
I can certainly count myself as one of them.
It's the kind of brutality inflicted by a human being on another that seems to be a common feature in social media that for many of us, the obvious question begging for an answer is whether people are getting less and less civilised in this so-called rat race we are in compared to during our forefathers' time.
In the first video lasting two minutes and 10 seconds, a kindergarten teacher was seen picking up a baby and angrily dropping her on another toddler lying on the floor.
As if this wasn't brutal enough, a second 36-second video shows yet another caregiver slapping a child so hard that the boy fell off his chair.
These videos are so heart-wrenching that I don't recommend them for those with heart problems.
Even for a journalist like me, it's almost impossible to find words to describe the inhumaneness of these incidents.
And these are far from isolated cases and they have happened too often, pricking the conscience of all and sundry.
I know for a fact that as more and more women are joining the workforce especially among the B40 group (Malaysian households earning RM3,900 a month or less) to make ends meet financially, quite a number are also mulling to quit after watching videos such as the above out of fear for their children's safety.
The police have arrested two people allegedly involved and we all hope that backed by the video evidence, the court would mete out the maximum sentence if they are convicted so that they can stay behind bars for a long time.
I feel particularly aghast every time such an incident occurs because just six years ago, I lost a grandson at one daycare centre in Damansara.
My then 10-week-old grandson died just two weeks after being placed at the centre. A post-mortem showed that he had choked on milk.
His tragic death on June 27, 2012, made it to the front page of Berita Harian and was also reported in other newspapers. According to the daily, it was the seventh such death of babies in the hands of caregivers so far that year.
Why are these tragedies still the norm rather an exception?
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said more than 80% of caregivers in the country are not registered with the government.
Out of 16,873 creches, only 3,173 are registered or had staff with Basic Childcare Certificates while the remaining 13,700 or 80% did not have staff with certified childcare skills.
According to the Statistics Department, the number of children from newborns to four-year-olds this year would reach 2.3 million.
Assuming that 50% of the 2.3 million required daycare, it would mean the country needs over 38,000 centres to accommodate these children while the daycare registry of the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry only shows 4,302 such centres or just 11.22%.
Wan Azizah said the shortage is glaring and this would have implications on the quality of childcare and safety of children, while the availability of such centres was crucial to prepare support systems for working parents.
This is a recurring issue that previous ministers of women, family and community development had to grapple with.
We are all looking forward to better and more effective solutions this time around as Wan Azizah is also concurrently holding the same portfolio now.
The zeal and zest that she has shown so far in the three months of being the No. 2 in the Pakatan Harapan Cabinet, has given much hope that she will make a big difference.
To begin with, I would like to suggest that government agencies like the Social Welfare Department reach out to the daycare centres on a pro-active basis, and to help them out as much as possible in terms of providing training on the proper handling of children, especially babies.
This is much better than reacting to incidents on an ad-hoc manner.
Such centres do not make much money and their operators are more imbued with a sense of public service. Imagine the hardships faced by families where both parents are working if we don't have such centres.
Such centres have become increasingly more crucial now with the government's aim to increase women's participation in the workforce in line with gender equality and all that.
Coupled with this is the fact that it's becoming increasingly problematic and expensive to hire maids especially from Indonesia with so much politics and bureaucracy standing in the way.
For the many that are unregistered, let's register them. The NGOs concerned with children and welfare work should also help out and make it a point to reach out to them, too.
There are so many corporate social responsibility projects being undertaken all over the place and they, too, ought to include daycare centres especially to fund training.
Malaysia is one country with a high birth rate and baby boomers and we need to do whatever necessary to enhance our scores on this front.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com