PETALING JAYA: The government’s reiterated commitment to establish the Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunal, and efforts to raise awareness about the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill, have been well received by women’s rights groups.
“There are some noteworthy announcements in the Budget which includes the kickstart of the formation of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunal and the setting up of gender focal teams for each ministry and agency,” said Women’s Aid Organisation head of campaigns Louise Tan.
“But, these gender focal teams must be implemented through a gender lens to ensure meaningful participation while the Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunal must remain survivor-centric.
“The Employment Act and Anti-Stalking Law reforms were not mentioned in Budget 2023. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor their implementation hand in hand with other measures expanding women’s rights in Malaysia,” said Tan.
She also noted that there was comparably less money channelled towards domestic and gender-based violence this year.
As a result, the only announcement is RM8mil for the Pusat Sokongan Sosial Setempat (PSSS), compared to allocations last year towards the PDRM D11 Unit.
“This suggests that combating gender-based violence is of less priority to the administration, despite its sustained prevalence post-pandemic and clear impact on women’s livelihoods, an area that Budget 2023 attempted to address,” she said.
Tan said the budget did not focus on crucial measures that would enable greater economic participation by women.
“Increasing women’s participation in the economy has been accepted as a critical path to increasing Malaysia’s GDP.
“Principal among this is the lack of recognition in the budget of the need for universally accessible and affordable childcare in the communities where people live.
“In addition, the related allocations seem targeted to middle-class earners and not B40 groups, who are clearly in greatest need of affordable and standards-based community-based childcare,” she said.
Engender Consultancy founder and managing director Omna Sreeni-Ong said allocations for the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry must include capacity-building and awareness raising, particularly in all types of organisations, to ensure that organisational duties were in place.
“When women are included in leadership roles and decision-making processes, the outcome tends to be inclusive and progressive.
“For the gender focal team, there needs to be dedicated ministry budgets for capacity-building and a robust monitoring and evaluation system within ministry.
“This will ensure their programmes are responsive to the needs of different groups of beneficiaries (male and female) of the ministry’s programmes.
“The new Budget allocates for the Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunal to be set up in 2023.
“This is an important measure to provide psycho-social support to gender-based violence victims and survivors.
“It is in its third year, and we need to measure its efficacy,” said Omna.
Sisters in Islam’s Aleza Othman welcomed the one-off financial aid for low-income families under the Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia.
“While the cash aid is welcomed and may help ease some of the financial burdens, it is not a long-term solution to this issue.
“One-off financial aid has been given since the last budget, and this is merely fulfilling the expectation.
“What we need is a thorough analysis of how the Covid-19 pandemic affects families as a long-term solution,” she said.
