PARLIAMENT | The 12-year-old girl who married her rapist in 2013, is in good health and intends to work, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Abdul Karim.

"She is now 16 years old and lives with her parents since her husband is in jail," she told Dewan Rakyat in a parliamentary written reply.

"She is still the wife to Riduan Masmud and visited him at Kepayan Prison Kota Kinabalu in January 2017," Rohani said replying to Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Kulai).

Riduan, a restaurant manager from Sabah, is serving his 12-year jail sentence after he was convicted of statutory rape. The father of four children took the girl as his second wife.

"She is comfortable living with her parents and help her mother to take care of the children of her siblings," added Rohani.

"She intends to work in the future so she could be self-sufficient."

According to Rohani, the ministry had provided counselling and advice to the minor for her well-being.

The welfare officer who visited her in March 2014 said she was not interested to go to school as she was ashamed by the wide media coverage of her case.

She told the officer who visited her in May 2013 that she agreed to marry Riduan, said the minister.

There had been 13,272 cases of children being raped between 2010 and May 2017, according to police statistics.

Rohani had said in that time frame, there have also been 6,014 molestation cases; 1,796 cases of incest; and 1,152 cases of unnatural sex.

All the cases involved victims under 18 years old.