Perak Women for Women president Dr Sharifah Halimah Jaafar said the authorities, including the police and prosecutors, should take stern action against such parents as there was a growing number of children being neglected.

Dr Sharifah said the Child Act 2001 was put in place to ensure children’s rights and to protect them especially from their own parents.

“In our country, the law is pretty much complete, but unfortunately the enforcement is not there.

“This has to stop as we are seeing the repercussions now. More and more children are being neglected, and some have even died,” she said.

Dr Sharifah was commenting on the case of a 15-year-old disabled boy who was found covered in his own faeces and urine in a storeroom of a flat in Nilai, Negri Sembilan.

She said the authorities’ inaction had led some parents to become careless as they did not fear getting punished for failing to exercise a duty of care to their children.

“The conviction rate for neglectful parents in this country is extremely low. If we can get away with crime, wouldn’t we do it over and over again?

“Action needs to be taken. These parents must be punished and their punishment needs to be publicised to deter others from doing the same,” Dr Sharifah added.

In May, Malay Mail reported the Welfare Department had recorded 4,377 child neglect cases from 2011 to 2013.

While the cases had been handed over to the Attorney-General’s office to decide on the appropriate action, none of the parents were ever prosecuted for neglect.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim said she had instructed her officers to conduct a full probe into the latest case.

“It is so shocking what happened to the boy and it was by luck that we stumbled onto him.

“The number of child neglect cases is increasing and to stop the trend, I have instructed those in my department to go hard on this issue and ensure the case is properly investigated,” she said.

Rohani said there were almost 500 facilities in the country designed to help the disabled.

“I don’t understand how his mother let the poor boy suffer rather than send him to one of these facilities.”

The teenager’s 40-year-old mother was reported to have left the boy, who suffers from cerebral palsy, unattended in the storeroom while she worked from early morning to late night.

“We were hesitant to take action against neglectful parents before as the society took pity on such parents who were also seen as victims.

“This case is a turning point for us and it will also be our ‘test-case’,” added Rohani.

She said if evidence showed the mother was guilty of neglect, she would ensure justice would be served.

“Let’s see if this will work in deterring similar incidences,” said Rohani who insisted that parents incapable of taking care of their children seek the government’s help.