VICTIMS OF PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE

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VICTIMS OF PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE: 9.

Mr Wee Siew Kim asked the Minister for Community Development and Sports (a) how many children under the age of 18 have been detected by social workers and medical personnel to be victims of physical and sexual abuse in 2002 and 2003; (b) how many, if any, had died; and (c) whether there are new measures introduced to protect them.

The Minister of State for Community Development and Sports (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (for the Minister for Community Development and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Wee for his concern. I would like to assure him that the safety of every child is the paramount factor in my Ministry's work in child protection.

In Singapore , the Children and Young Persons Act provides the legal framework for the protection of a child or young person up to the age of 16 years.

The Ministry of Community Development and Sports received 193 reports of alleged physical and sexual abuse cases in year 2002, and 205 cases in year 2003. No child has died among the cases reported to MCDS. However, according to the cases recorded by the Police, there was one death from physical abuse and one death from sexual abuse in year 2002. In year 2003, there were three deaths resulting from physical abuse. All five cases were aged below five years old.

When a case of alleged child abuse is reported, an investigation is conducted by the child protection officer. This is to ascertain the risk to the child and, where necessary, to allow us intervention to safeguard the safety of the child. The

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care plan for the child is discussed by a Child Abuse Protection Team, comprising child protection officers, paediatricians, psychologists and the educational staff where appropriate. A Care and Protection Order is usually issued by the Court to ensure that family members receive assessments, support services as well as counselling. To prevent child abuse, MCDS carries out on-going training on detection and early intervention to ensure that professionals and those in regular contact with children can raise alert even on potential abuse and not wait till after abuse has taken place.

The protection of our children requires a "Many Helping Hands" approach. MCDS and our partners have implemented various initiatives that focus on the prevention and protection of our children from abuse. I will just highlight two recent initiatives.

(i) Project Seed

Project Seed is a programme of the Singapore Children's Society where teachers and social workers identify school-going children who may be at risk of being abused by their families. The help extended to the family is preventive and effective in improving parent-child relationships.

(ii) Handbook for Teachers on "Managing Children At Risk "

This handbook was produced by MCDS and the Ministry of Education to help teachers, principals and school guidance officers to identify and help children at risk of abuse.

I must emphasise that parents or family members who require assistance in parenting or child behaviour management must seek help. We would also urge any

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member of the public who knows of or suspects child abuse to report the case. They can approach any Family Service Centre near their homes or call the Child Protection and Welfare Section's toll free line at 1800-258 6378.

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, the Minister of State says that the Ministry has a handbook for teachers. I would like to ask him whether the Minister has a handbook for parents to educate them on where the Government draws its line on physical child abuse. Because, very often, it is not uncommon to have parents giving a spank on the buttock of a child for mischievous behaviour. Will that, in the eyes of the Government, be considered as abuse?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: The handbook for teachers is basically on how to manage children at risk and probably to look for possible signs and evidence of abuse. To issue a handbook on how to do parenting, I think, is something very basic. I suppose we can consider it.

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, I think the Minister of State missed my point. If we are going to have a law that punishes parents for child abuse, there is obviously some concern on the part of parents that if one resorts to physically punishing a child, he may have crossed the line and broken the law. If the Government's policy is really one of concern of child abuse, then where does chastising a child end before it begins at abusing a child? And this obviously requires some level of public education.

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, I would say that every family is different. The question of whether corporal punishment is allowed is also a matter of opinion. But if we are talking about causing serious injury, it is a clear case of abuse. For rational parents, I think they would know what constitutes an abuse, if that is what Mr Sin is talking about.

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Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, the Minister of State talked about early intervention. Could he enlighten the House how many cases of early intervention have been disclosed by the social workers that have been brought for early investigation?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: I am afraid I do not have those figures with me at the moment, because the Member asked about alleged abuse cases, rather than early intervention cases. If he is interested, we will try and look up the information for him.

Dr Ong Seh Hong (Aljunied): Sir, the Minister of State mentioned that there were five cases of deaths and they were all children below five years of age. Is it because of the failure of early detection, especially among this group of pre-school children who were not in any kindergarten or child care centre and therefore they were missed out and not detected earlier? That being the case, could the Minister of State tell us what has been done or will be done to improve the situation, so that we can detect all these very young children who are being abused at an early stage before death results?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, I would like to say that all these five cases were purely criminal cases. Early detection is not really the issue. There was a case of a 21-month old baby abused by the father and the baby died. The father was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. There was a 6-month-old baby girl who died after being sexually assaulted, and the perpetrator has been sentenced to death. There was a boy who was abused by the baby-sitter and who has been charged for murder. There was another case of a 2-year-old boy physically abused by a domestic worker, who is to be charged for murder. There was a 4-year-old boy abused by the mother and her boyfriend. Both were released on police

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bail under a charge of voluntary causing grievous hurt under the Penal Code. All these are criminal cases.

Ms Braema Mathiaparanam: Sir, in terms of preventive measures, could I ask the Minister of State what kind of collaboration takes place with doctors or the Ministry of Health, especially for young children, in reporting of such cases and what action takes place after that?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, as and when doctors come across cases of suspected abuse in their clinics, they are duty bound to report the cases to the Police or maybe to MCDS. And we will follow up from there.