Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri. - filepic
KUCHING: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will make it compulsory for nursery operators to contact parents if their child is absent to prevent accidental deaths of children left in cars.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the standard operating procedures (SOP) regarding the matter needs to be updated following the recent deaths due to parents forgetting to drop off their children at daycare facilities.
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"If parents cannot be reached, nurseries should have an (additional) emergency contact number to allow them to get in touch with other family members.
"However, there are certain things I cannot do because it falls under a different ministry. For example, people say no more tinted screens. That is not under my me and I can only attend to matters under my ministry’s purview,” she told reporters after the Sarawak Media Night on Sunday (Nov 12).
Nancy stressed that enforcing the SOP can, at the very least, reduce the duration children are left in cars, thereby minimising the risk of death compared to extended periods of seven to eight hours.
She added that three deaths of children left in cars has been reported from October to date.- Bernama
