PETALING JAYA: The Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group (SAWO) has urged Putrajaya to allocate budget funds for better technological infrastructure and services to help women in rural communities in Sabah.
SAWO president Winnie Yee said it was important to narrow the gap between the urban and rural areas in the state, especially during the present Covid-19 crisis. Sabah now has the highest number of cases in the country.
“The rural areas of Sabah, in the time of Covid-19, are being cut off from the mainstream supply of services because of the digital divide. Many of them in distant villages are unreachable, even by phone.
“This is the new norm for the foreseeable future, so we need to invest in the infrastructure – not just on roads, but also technology.
“This issue has been put out there before as the women and children in these rural communities cannot access crucial information,” she told FMT.
Yee also referred to the case of Sabahan student Veveonah Mosibin, who gained public attention after a video showed her climbing a tree to obtain better internet access to sit for her university’s online examination.
She also spoke on the need to have greater access to government agencies, noting that there was only one D11 sexual crime unit, based at the Kepayan police headquarters in Kota Kinabalu, to oversee the entire state of 3.5 million people.
She said Sabah did not have its own women’s development department, although there was one in every state in the peninsula.
“The reason for the high number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah is because our facilities are not spread out enough; many people are falling through the cracks. Government agencies are doing the best they can with the limited resources but they are being worked to death.”
Funding ’emotional quotation training’
The All Women’s Action Society has called for the government to fund “emotional quotation training” for the police in the upcoming Budget.
The group’s programme and operations manager, Nisha Sabanayagam, said such training would reduce the mishandling of sensitive cases and encouraging more sexual harassment survivors to lodge reports.
“Funding should also be allocated to increase the number of D11 officers in each district.
“We need an entire department to be equipped with proper technology and officers to handle online cases of child abuse, pornography, cyber gender-based violence and cyberbullying.”
A tribunal should be set up for sexual harassment cases to allow for a more cost-effective and efficient process when addressing sexual harassment complaints.
Women’s Aid Organisation senior research and advocacy officer Yap Lay Sheng said as public resources were being diverted to fight the pandemic, Putrajaya must ensure healthcare access for vulnerable populations was not jeopardised.
“The government must allocate funds to strengthen shelter capacity and ensure that we are better prepared to combat gender-based violence, which has been known to spike during times of national crises, economic distress and natural disasters.”
She said WAO had seen a large number of women leaving the workforce to care for their families during the lockdown, and said they should be enabled to re-enter the labour force without hassle to prevent the gender pay gap from worsening.
Nellie Tan, chief executive of the Women’s Institute of Management, hoped the 2021 budget would provide more opportunities for women to take on senior positions in government departments, as well as the provision of proper childcare facilities at the workplace.
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