Baby Dumping In Malaysia

Child is priceless gift from Allah SWT. However, baby dumping is a social crisis and has a chronic increase as many cases are occuring in Malaysia society. The baby dumping refers to discarding or leaving alone, for extended period of time, a child younger than 12 months of age in a public or private setting with the intent to dispose child. Recent statistics prove that the heinous nature of baby dumping makes no difference in preventing this crime as the numbers keep increasing year by year. A saddening reality to note is that as a self-proclaimed Islamic country, baby dumping incidents mostly involve Malaysian Muslims. Islam is a religion that emphasizes good moral values, kindness, symphathy and empathy among many others; hence it is a mismatch that this inhumane social problem mostly involves Muslims, especially with the embodiment of Islam in our laws and administration.

The Factors Lead Baby Dumping in Malaysia

TEENAGE PREGNANCIES

Teenage pregnancy is defines as a teenage or underage girl becoming pregnant. This pregnancy of teenagers is a mere result of the gratification of sexual urges. That pregnancy might not happen only if studies were prioritized rather than having relationships with the opposite sex. No premarital sex, no early pregnancy. They are to young to take responsible as early parent.

FAMILY BREAK UP

Family break up happens after a long period of misunderstandings, fighting and unhappiness. Children are mostly affected by this kind of situation if both their mother and father decided to a divorce and one cannot raise their child alone, tendency is that they will dump their child. In other cases, the problem family or any family members who involve with social problems also could lead to the decision making of dump their babies.

POVERTY

Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to dump him/her. Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings, the lack of institutions such as orphanages to take in children whom their parents cannot support. Societies with strong social structures and liberal adoption laws tend to have lower rates of child dumping.

SOCIETY AND FAMILY REJECTION

The perception of society who couldn't accept illegitimate child is one of the main reasons of these dumpers to dump their babies. Parents cannot accept if their daughters get pregnant because of wider culture of shame. What society should do is stop being quick to criticize and judgmental towards unwed girls.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

The lack of knowlegde could divide with sex knowledge and religious knowlegde. The sex knowledge could gain through proper sex education. It's not to teach on how to do sex but it's more about the relationship between different genders which could lead to social problems. The religious knowledge is important so they will know which is right and which is wrong. "The lack of religious knowledge is among the factors which contribute to social problems, including baby dumping".

Suggestions to Prevent "Baby Dumping"

BABY HATCH

The baby hatch was launched on 30 May 2010 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It was built to rescue unwanted newborns, a place where mothers must be allowed to leave their babies without fear of prosecution so that these babies can be cared.

The hatch has a small door which opens to an incubator bed on which the mother can place her baby. once the door is closed, an alarm bell will alert the NGO's staff to the baby's presence after the mother has left.

PLACES FOR PREGNANT TEENS

There are several places that give special services to married or unmarried teens that are pregnant, as well as rape victims. Special education that teaches pregnant teens to handle the situation and care for their babies is provided. The existing places for these teens include Sekolah Harapan, Baitul Ehsan and Baitul Islah.

CAMPAIGNING

A campaign to stop baby dumping is one of the solutions to raise awareness of this issues to the public. One of the campaign's focuses is "Kami Prihatin". This campaign aimed to raise awareness among the community on child abuses and abandoned babies. Several activity were organized to promote child protection policy, including producing a documentary and publishing community awareness.