Covid-19 brings to attention public policy concerns and their effectiveness in addressing current circumstances, especially children who have lost their parents to the pandemic.
Early this week, Malaysia recorded 20,780 new cases, bringing the cumulative Covid-19 infections close to 1.32 million. The death rate stood at 11,373.
As this crisis impacts the public, it becomes grimmer for the most vulnerable segments of society, particularly B40 children who have lost their guardians.
It is heartbreaking when a guardian or both parents succumb to the pandemic, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
The recent data from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry showed that there were 33 parentally bereaved children. The figures are expected to increase.
It is worrying how these children will cope with the traumatic experience of losing their parents in socially isolated and economically strained conditions due to the pandemic.
Research by the Institute for Computational and Data Science Co-hire Penn State showed that these children have a higher risk of suffering from psychiatric difficulties, depression, lower educational attainment, economic insecurity and suicide if there is no intervention.
Under normal circumstances, such a situation would be handled based on reports from teachers, professionals, community leaders and local associations, but with a stay-at-home order during Covid-19, it is difficult to help and connect them to adequate resources and support.
This crisis serves as an opportunity to re-evaluate and assess our policy regarding this new vulnerable group.
A recent report said the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry would work closely with the Health Ministry, including with community leaders and residents’ associations, to identify these children.
Under the existing framework, the ministry will provide monthly child financial and food basket assistance, legal guardianship to children who have lost both parents and counselling.
Even though these measures may help, ensuring the continuous wellbeing and welfare of these parentally bereaved children should involve new initiatives in the short-, medium- and long-term planning.
It is suggested that in the short-term planning, the government could consider offering new initiatives alongside the existing mitigation measures.
This can take the form of national child allowance programmes or special-purpose social assistance programmes as a part of the comprehensive Covid-19 National Recovery Plan since they could not benefit from Bantuan Prihatin National.
Mongolia, Singapore, Australia and Canada have embarked on such measures to protect children from deprivation and inequalities.
The appropriate amount recommended by the United Nations Children’s Fund is around RM200. This could largely benefit children aged between 1 and 14 to cope with the challenging situation.
As medium- and long-term responses, more financial support and assistance could be provided to deserving children once the pandemic ends.
It is also desirable to have the Social Worker Profession Act passed by Parliament as soon as possible.
Malaysia lacks professional social workers, where the ratio is one social worker to every 8,576 individuals compared with other developed countries, which have a lower ratio.
The Bill is reportedly in its final draft. Another long-term policy response is the creation of National Social Protection data that includes these children.
Additionally, the government should consider providing more services at the local level and initiating community networks and infrastructure.
Covid-19 challenges also requires the government to embrace a strong collaborative framework with relevant parties and structured actions to ensure the affected children fare better in terms of economic and social mobility.
