KUALA LUMPUR - The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will furnish details of the Penan Task Force report on sexual exploitation against Penan women and girls for the Sarawak government to formulate strategies with a holistic and integrated approach for the community’s development, said its minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

The state government, she said, had requested for the presence of Women Development Department director-general Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, who headed the taskforce, to a meeting here on Oct 26.

“As a result of the report, the ministry received many proposals and suggestions from various parties. We appreciate the feedback and look forward to receiving more,” she said in a statement on Sunday.

Develop perspectives

Subsequently, she said, the feedback would allow her ministry to develop various perspectives pertaining to the development planning for the Penans.

The ministry’s national action committee’s fact-finding mission to Baram last year confirmed that sexual harassment and exploitation by timber camp workers had indeed taken place.

One of the victims, a 22-year-old mother of two from Long Item, however, lodged a police report recently at Long Lama, Baram, denying such allegation. - Bernama