GIRLS from the Iban community make up the highest number of teenage pregnancies in big cities in Sarawak such as Miri City, said Iban chieftain Pemanca Alexander Isut.
The situation is reflected in other major urban centres in Sarawak and it is a case of deep concern as pregnancies from such unmarried girls cause many family and personal woes as well as serious consequences for the babies, he said.
Isut said Iban families must take a more serious approach in tackling this teenage issue.
"Iban girls accounted for the highest number of pregnant teens nowadays, even here in Miri city.
"The number of such teenage pregnancies is rising every year.
"This is not the only social problem afflicting the Iban youths.
"Drugs, illegal racing, getting into trouble with job scams....these are among the serious problems we are facing among our young ones," he said at a community dinner function last night.
Isut said families and neighbourhood committees as well as schools and ethnic associations must hold more dialogues to find ways to curb these teenage issues.
The Ibans are the largest ethnic group in Sarawak.
On Jan 16, it was reported that a survey carried out by University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) among teenagers and youths have shown that easy accessibility to porn videos are fuelling their sex-drive; and subsequently causing surge in teenage pregnancies in this state.
Getting hooked to these sex scenes are among the top reasons why more teen girls are getting pregnant even at the early teen years, State Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah had said.
Speaking at a press conference in Kuching, she had said the recent survey by Unimas also showed that other key factors causing pregnancies among wayward teens are dropping out from schooling at early teen, volatile family relationship, personal problems, substance abuse and sexual grooming by others, as well as peer pressure to try out sex.
"The survey by Unimas showed that 58.7 percent of teenage pregnant girls had dropped out of schools, then got involved in sexual relationships and then got pregnant.
"Some 60.1 percent of girls got pregnant before the age of marriage (legal age 18).
"The study showed that in 2023, there were reported cases of 2,026 teen girls who got pregnant in Sarawak.
"That is an increase of teen pregnancies of 32 percent compared to the 2022 figures," she had said. – June 23, 2024.
