IPOH, April 18 — Child abuse increased in Perak from 2015 to 2018, with a total of 1,141 cases reported in that period, the state legislative assembly was told today.

State Women and Family Development, and Social Welfare Committee chairman Wong May Ing said that the amount is only based on the cases which were reported.

"The cases have increased gradually for the past four years. We also did not have the figure for the child abuse cases which are not reported,” she said.

The Pantai Remis assemblyman said that there were a total of 183 cases for 2015, 299 cases for 2016, 318 cases for 2017 and 341 cases for 2018.

Wong also said that the state government is planning to publish two guide books for primary and secondary school children on how to protect themselves from violent and sexual abusers.

"The books are very user-friendly. It was designed to attract children. The book has colourful content and is story-based.

"The books are at the final stage now. We will be releasing it soon,” she said.

Wong also noted that the books will serve as a guide for parents and teachers as well.

She added that the books will be distributed to 1,100 schools in the state and over 300,000 students will benefit from it.

"The books are available in Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Tamil while the English version will be uploaded online in the website,” she said.