In a statement today, Teach For The Needs (TFTN) said the world body’s findings that the children had a higher ratio of being stunted than those in Ghana, a developing country, and that one out of every two children did not have enough to buy food were worrying.
It said these children represented the younger generation who need to contribute to the country’s productivity in the future.
It said not a single authority, including local governments or elected legislators of constituencies where such neighbourhoods are located, had taken the initiative to respond to the concerns cited in the report, released late last month.
“We urge all parties to set aside their ideologies and political differences, and work together to find solutions in terms of policy and implementation,” the statement said.
“At the same time, Malaysians should be more active in deliberating on the policies and increasing pressure on the relevant authorities to raise minimum wages, impose higher corporate taxes and halt cuts in health and education budgets.”
It added that politicians should also look into the issue of poverty-stricken children who are affected by inequitable economic conditions.
The Unicef study was conducted between Aug 20 and Sept 30 last year, involving 966 heads of households and 2,142 children from 17 different locations in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
It revealed that one in five children in working class neighbourhoods such as low-cost flats was stunted, while one in 10 was underweight.
It also found that Malaysian children were worse off than some of its nine Asean neighbours.
Malaysia ranked eighth (8%) for children who are wasting, third (17.7%) for children who are stunted, fourth (12.4%) for children who are underweight, seventh (7.1%) for children who are overweight and ninth (12.7%) for children who are obese.
The report noted that malnutrition for children in low-cost flats was worse than the national and KL average, with the prevalence of malnutrition higher among older children.
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