Nancy (seated centre) poses for a group photo at the event.
SIBU (Dec 8): It is high time to highlight and intensify efforts to prevent teen pregnancy among the state’s youth, said Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The rising number of teen pregnancies in Sarawak, she said, is a cause for concern as the state has recorded a 9.1 per cent in adolescent pregnancy and has ranked second top nationwide.
According to Nancy, Kelantan recorded the highest with 9.5 per cent, while Penang came third with 8.9 per cent.
“This is getting more and more worrying, and with Sarawak being in the top list; it is time for me to go to my own state and share whatever resources we have in our ministry to address the issues.
“It is not just Sarawak, but of course, Sarawak is the second highest, and therefore we have to do something and work together with the community,” she said.
She said this to the press after closing the ‘Advocacy forum for reproductive education for special needs groups from Sarawak’s religious perspective’, held here yesterday.
Based on the cases, she said about 88 per cent of the teens aged between 13 to 18 years old were found to have engaged in sexual activity, but were not fully informed about contraception, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
“Prevalence of sexual activities among those aged 13 has increased from 7.3 per cent in 2017 to 7.6 per cent in 2022.
“Royal Malaysia Police’s(PDRM) data shows that rape cases among those aged 18 and below is the highest in 2022 with 1,277 cases, followed by 235 incest cases, 66 cases of abandoned babies and 11 molest cases,” she revealed.
Adding on, she disclosed that the Department of Syariah Judiciary Malaysia has recorded a total of 6,465 marriage registrations from young Muslim couples under the age of 18,throughout 2017 to 2021.
For the non-Muslims couples under 18 years old, the National Registration Department, meanwhile, recorded a total of 1,405 marriages throughout the same period.
“This is a priority and a collective responsibility for everyone to reduce the statistics,” she said.
For that, she said one of the ministry’s initiatives was to set up more ‘KafeTEEN’ in Sarawak.
“KafeTEEN, as an interactive youth centre, enables teenagers to gather and see themselves as someone of value.
“When you empower them, they will showcase their talents and will appreciate their own values,” she pointed out.
Since its inception in 2006 and with its current 18 premises nationwide, KafeTEEN has been acting as a one-stop centre for teenagers and has benefitted 1.7 million young adults.
Sarawak has two such premises, with one in Sri Aman and the other one in Long Bedian, Baram.
On another matter, she remarked that a total of 235,428 people with disability (PwD) have been registered under the Social Welfare Department, in which 17 per cent of them are aged between 10 to 24 years old.
