A Batu Gajah welfare home, accused of locking up disabled children in ‘cages’, have defended their decision to do that, claiming that it was necessary.
Handicapped Children’s Welfare Home chairman R. Sivalingam told The Star Online‘s Manjit Kaur that the situation was different from what people saw in the photographs, which were widely circulated on social media.
According to R. Sivalingam, out of the 47 residents at the welfare home, 10 of them were suffering from extreme mental conditions.
He added that the children were allowed to roam around the home’s compound during the day under the supervision of the staff. At night, however, they were confined to special cubicles with a mattress and pillows.
This, said R. Sivalingam, had to be done for their own safety.
“If we allow them to sleep in the hall, or in the rooms like the rest, they will hurt one another. It is for their own safety and the safety of the other inmates that we need them to sleep in the cubicles.
“If we don’t do this, they will bite one another, hurt the eyes of the other residents, or go naked. They would even defecate and throw faeces at the rest,” he was quoted by the news portal as saying.
R. Sivalingam told the news portal that the special cubicles were built in 2006, shortly after he took over as the home’s chairman, as before then, those with severe mental disorder were tied with ropes to ensure that they don’t hurt each other or the other residents.
“I felt that was the wrong way to treat them. Therefore, the idea to build the special cubicles came about,” he was further quoted as saying.
The incident first came to light when a woman, who was reportedly visiting her aunt, stumbled upon the ‘cages’ with children inside them and took photographs of them.
According to the person who took the photographs, some of the ‘cages’ even had two children inside.
The photographs have since gone viral online, prompting authorities to investigate the claim.
Meanwhile, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim told The New Straits Times that caging the mentally-challenged “isn’t normal”.
“This is not a normal practice. I don’t want the disabled or disabled children to be treated that way, we have a standard operating procedure in housing and caring for them,” she was quoted by the daily as saying.
Rohani said investigations are underway and the ministry is currently waiting for the official report.
