WE read of abandoned and dumped babies in the newspapers almost everyday. And they are on the rise.

The
common understanding is that babies are abandoned because the parents or the mothers cannot afford to raise them
and are hoping that the babies that they have left on the footsteps of some homes, orphanages and mosques would be
adopted by some loving couples and raised in better homes than what they can provide. Most of them are born out of
wedlock and had to be abandoned in this way so that the parents or the mothers could continue with their lives
without the shame of ostracisation for having given birth to illegitimate children.

According to some social workers dumped babies are those whose parents or mothers just want to get rid of them
after they were born out of wedlock without caring whether the newborns live or die. Some are even suspected of
being suffocated or strangled before being bundled and thrown into some clumps of banana trees, bushes and
rubbish bins or dumps. Still some sparks of mother instincts must have been awakened at the last moment and this
perhaps explains why some of the babies found in rubbish bins and dumps are still alive. They were dumped but not
killed.

The statistics are indeed grim. Since 2005 a total of 517 babies have been abandoned or dumped. And of the number
287 were found dead. All efforts have been made to prevent baby dumping but the figures have been rising. It is a
shame. It is indeed a national shame more so now that the police have to investigate these cases under the Penal
Code for murder or attempted murder. The law enforcers are not too pleased with it either and have called for
different approaches to tackle the problem or at least to bring down the number of babies being abandoned or
dumped. "A holistic approach, targeting the root of the problem and focusing on preventive and prescriptive aspects,
is needed in tackling the problem," said federal CID director Commissioner Datuk Seri Bakri Zinin on Wednesday.

Indeed besides educating young people on sex, unwanted pregnancies and the giving of more publicity to shelters
for young mothers, other ways should be found to save the babies without having the parents charged in the syariah
courts with fornicating. It is common knowledge that most of the babies abandoned or dumped are Malays. Thus
some blame for the rising cases of abandoned or dumped babies must be apportioned to the way Islam is being
administered in the country, the way it is taught and the "evangelistic" but mostly uninstructive nature of the
propagation of the faith that are conducted on radio and TV for hours everyday. The religious authorities need to put
on their thinking cap on this baby dumping problem, help to solve it and, thereby, remain relevant.

Updated: 09:19AM Fri, 11 Feb 2011