NCPO urged to address violence against women, children

BANGKOK, July 9 (TNA) - Thailand’s Foundation for Women and Women Networks have called for the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to tackle violence against women and children. Representatives from the Foundation for Women (FFW) and Regional and Bangkok Women Networks, submitted their proposed solutions on the issue to the NCPO at the Government House's Center of Public Service in Bangkok on Wednesday. The proposals include the Royal Thai Police's deployment of volunteer female police investigators on women and children cases in all parts of the country, eradication of obscene and pornographic materials and crackdowns on those involved, control of media contents being at risk of causing sexual assaults and regulated zoning for entertainment venues. The calls followed a recent case, in which a 13-year-old girl was raped on a train by a train employee and brutally killed by being thrown out of a window of the train running from Surat Thani Province in the Thai South to Bangkok. The night incident, taking place last weekend near a train station in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, has led to a public outcry and demands for safety guaranteed for women and children, especially those using public transport services, and decisive legal punishment against rapists. The chair of Bangkok's social development volunteer group, Sasithorn Kaliwang, proposed regular police patrols every half an hour on every train, clean and safe toilets, safe doors, rather than curtains, in passengers' sleeper bogies and strict ban on smoking and alcohol on board every train. Meanwhile, Governor of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) Prapat Jongsanguan ordered a revision of regulations to totally ban alcohol sale on board the trains, deploy more patrol police and install close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on all trains, while also strictly enforcing employment rules to screen out those with past criminal and drug records.(TNA)