This is the highest, or about 14.9 per cent of the total number of cases in the state, said the report.
According to the report, a 12-year-old is among the underaged mothers in the district, this year. The girl was just 11 years and 11 months old when she became pregnant earlier this year.
The report quoted Kapit health clinic family medicine specialist Dr Jusoh Awang Senik as saying during a discussion on the issue, that teen pregnancies had become a social problem in the area.
“Whether married or unmarried, it’s a social problem as infants are born underweight, they are difficult to care for and support, the mothers lack emotional and mental readiness (to handle their infants), and (they have no) family support, or financial means.
“Every time they (the teen mothers) come to the clinic, they’re not happy, they cry. Forced into ‘express marriages’ – allowed under the Majlis Adat Istiadat Sarawak, where the Resident has the power to sign marriage certificates for 14 or 15-year-olds – two or three years later, they divorce.”
Jusoh urged government agencies to pool their resources to address the issue, and also called for better education programmes that could help bring down the figure.
“Under the law, someone who has sex with a teenager aged under 16 can be charged with statutory rape, and jailed for 20 years and caned.
“But here (in Sarawak), there are ‘express marriages’ and divorce later, because of many contributing factors.”
Sarawak is number two in nationwide teen pregnancies the last few years – ranking below Sabah.
Recent statistics, however, show a drop in the number of cases, with 2,909 cases recorded last year, compared with 3,401 cases in 2014.