ISKANDAR PUTERI: The Johor state government and Darul Ta’zim Family Development Foundation (YPKDT) are working on a plan to provide legal aid services for women in the state facing domestic problems while forging smart partnerships with various agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and legal bodies.
“The service is expected to start in October with YPKDT providing a helpline as well. The legal aid service has the support of the Johor Islamic Department, Legal Aid Department and Johor Bar Council.
“There’ll be various forms of help including counselling and family services for Muslims and non-Muslims,” said state tourism, women’s development, family and community committee chairman, Liow Cai Tung, today at the Johor State Assembly in answer to a question from Gan Peck Cheng (Penggaram) who enquired on divorce statistics and efforts to help those affected.
Aside from this, Liow said YPKDT is also working on a “Modul Keluarga Sejahtera” (happy family module) with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as a measure to prevent divorce and “which will be recommended to the state government as mandatory for non-Muslim couples to obtain a pre-marriage certificate”.
She said that statistics from the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (Jakim) show that there were 4,588 divorce cases in 2017 – the second highest after Selangor which recorded 8,898 cases – while based on National Registration Department (JPN) records, 2,016 non-Muslims divorced last year, with 438 recorded since January this year.
“Owing to these statistics, various programmes are being prepared with the state government continuing the ‘Program Sakinah Warga Industri’ (a course to inculcate good sense in the industrial citizen) which emphasises on stress, money and family management which are issues that can lead to divorce,“ she said. — Bernama
