A childcare centre will be established in Parliament for the convenience of female MPs and parliament staff who have young children.

Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said the childcare centre was expected to commence operations this year.

“We have identified the space and it is going to be renovated quite soon. Definitely, it’s going to be (operational) this year,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Women’s Political Leadership: Creating Positive Change Conference at the Parliament building here today.

He said the decision to establish the childcare centre was in line with the government’s policy to encourage more active participation of women in politics, policy-making and in the workforce.

Meanwhile, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said the centre would also benefit female media practitioners with small children but who had to work long hours during Parliament sitting. 

“If we (MPs) have to work until 10pm in the evening, it will be the same challenge for reporters who need to work beyond office hours.

“If I am struggling with childcare, you are struggling with childcare too, so we start with the Parliament. It has to start here (Parliament),” she said.

On a related development, Yeoh (photo) said some 500 government offices across the country have yet to set up childcare centres.

She said two factors that had hampered the progress were lack of funds and space as many government offices were operating on rented premises.

“So we are conducting an audit, and we are talking to every agency to see how they can overcome this,” she said.

The government has initially targeted for all of its agencies and departments to set up a childcare centre at their respective workplaces last month (January).

Yeoh also pointed out that it was important to put in place support structure, such as a childcare centre, in order to increase women participation in politics and the workforce.

“There is enough money in government agencies to organise study tours, meetings and conferences but never enough money to set up childcare centres, and that can’t be right,” she said.

She added that in politics, there were only 32 female MPs (14.4 percent) of the total of 222 MPs in the Dewan Rakyat while there were only 13 female senators of 67 senators in the Dewan Negara.

Meanwhile, at the state legislative assemblies, there are only 57 women (11.3 percent) of the total 505 assemblypersons.

-- Bernama