No baby dumping cases for 15999 hotline

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 10, 2010): The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry’s Talian Nur hotline has never received any call related to baby dumping cases.

The hotline, set up on Dec 5, 2007, has up to Nov 7, 2010, received 125,721 calls, of which only 38,437 of the calls (31%) were productive cases (productive means related).

Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Senator Heng Seai Kie said 29 call agents, comprising various races, were manning the 24-hour 15999 line.

“They are able to respond to callers in Bahasa Melayu, English, Tamil, Mandarin, Iban, Bidayuh, Bahasa Melayu Sarawak, Hokkien, Kadazan dan Dusun,” she said in reply to an oral question from Datuk Abd Rahman Bakri (BN-Sabak Bernam) in Parliament today.

Abd Rahman had asked the minister to state the number of calls Talian Nur had received to date and the number of cases it handled, including baby-dumping.

Heng said of the productive cases, 34,221 (89%) of the calls were resolved by the call agents and 4,216 cases (11%) were referred to the ministry’s agency, concern for further action.

The breakdown and nature of the productive cases is:
CHILDREN-related cases (3,002 or 7.8%);
 PHYSICALLY-challenged cases (1,142 or 3.2%);
 SENIOR citizens and family cases (3,271 or 8.5%);
 REQUEST for aid cases (13,986 or 36.4%);
 COUNSELLING and psychiatric cases (6.031 or 15.7%); and
 LEGAL cases (242 or 0.6%).
Heng also provided Talian Nur’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that required networking with any one or more of 25 agencies and government departments available to resolve cases.