Thanakorn Kanthee, a social media influencer who died on Wednesday after consuming a 350-milliliter bottle of whisky for 30,000 ringgit on a dare at a gathering in Chanthaburi, has sparked outrage over human rights violations.
While Thanakorn’s event is one of many in which people with intellectual disabilities are bullied, abused, or even sexually harassed, it highlights the urgent want to protect their rights. However, justice has yet to emerge in his case.
Advocate for freedom
The Kids of People with Intelligence Disabilities Club in Nong Khai, a 56-year-old mother of three children, is president of the Kids of Persons with Intelligence Disabilities Club.
The youngest is then 21 years old, but according to her, his level of learning capability is comparable to that of a 10-year-old child.
When he was younger, Ms Pranee’s brother went to school with kids his time, she said. Nevertheless, he was abused by his classmates and teachers for being different.
She claimed that some of his classmates made him use the bathroom to drink water.
A caregiver intervened before it happened, according to one professor, who yet attempted to force him to leap off the top of the highest stair.
She said she made the decision to preschool the child to stop bullies from happening to him.
Her youngest son has found his calling in modern knowledge and can lead a normal existence, she continued, with the support of family members and their love and understanding.
According to Ms. Pranee, she became a champion for the rights of those with academic disability.
According to her observations, she discovered that this group of people frequently engage in sexual harassment and are compelled to silence themselves because of their limited contact skills.
Mr Pranee raised the case of a 22-year-old murder target as an example.
The victim, who has intellectual disabilities, was threatened by the culprit that she would be killed if she didn’t tell anyone about the murder.
She followed the instructions and remained silent until her kids noticed the unusual solitude. When her kids found out about what had happened to their child, they called the police, but the prey was unable to name the killer.
In the end, a group president told her parents to have their child pull the rapist to catch him red-handed, leading to his imprisonment, she said.
It was undesirable that the parents treated their child as an object and allowed the criminal to “finish his businesses” with her just to assault the legal, she said.
” It was dehumanising. “
Obstacles and solutions
According to Soct. Owatwannasakul, chairman of the Association of Parents of Persons with Intelligence Disabilities of Thailand, those who are near to them frequently engage in prejudice against this team.
Their families frequently avoid filing a lawsuit due to dangers and force, he said.
The issue is much more acute in rural areas, where there is still little attention of those with intellectual disabilities, he added.
They frequently refer to people with intellectual disabilities as” the toys of world” and frequently treat them unfairly for joy, he said, adding that it is necessary to strengthen the legal system to shield people with intellectual disabilities from prejudice.
At the same time, families are advised not to injure their children emotionally by calling them “retards” or “downies.
Additionally, they are advised never to isolate the children from community or overprotect them from damage.
Therefore, it is necessary to give families of people with disabilities the tools they need to ensure that their children may live normally.
As a father of a disabled child, I can assure you that our lives are never a failure and that having a disabled child is not a result of negative karma.
” We can raise our kids to have bright prospects like another children,” he said.
Beware of companions
According to the Empowerment of People with Disabilities Department, there were 2,175,815 people with disabilities in Thailand as of October 31. That number accounted for 3. 29 % of the entire population.
Among them, there were 162,747 people with mental or psychological illness, 144,247 with philosophical illness, 16,890 with learning disability and 25,643 with dementia.
The Empowerment of People with Disabilities Department’s lieutenant general director, Nataorn Indeesri, stated that the ministry had received reports of bias against people with disabilities, but some studies frequently did not categorize the different types of disability.
Cyberbullying and sexual abuse are just a few examples of discrimination that can include verbal and physical abuse.
According to Ms. Nataorn, people with disabilities do not know when they are subjected to sexual harassment because they have limited thinking.
If the patients are teenagers, the abuse may get worse because their bodies start having sexual feelings as a result of their hormones.
” Youth are full of attention,” she added.
She said it is necessary to inform parents and guardians about what level of physical touch constitutes abuse and how people with disabilities may defend themselves in order to avoid sexual abuse.
Parents and guardians must set up a secure environment for sexual harassment patients to openly share their experiences with the abuse.
Particularly if the children are unusually quiet, they must be aware of and watch out for any unusual behavior.
According to Ms. Nataorn, one of the areas where abuse takes place is in schools, where it is frequently carried out by buddies, teachers, and even families.
In response, institutions must educate attendees on how to handle situations involving people with disabilities during meetings.
According to Ms. Nataorn,” Educators need to be educated on how to handle abuse and how to protect these special needs students so that other children may experiment with students with philosophical disabilities.”
Institutions may register these children to study alongside other kids because it will help them develop socialization skills and be able to interact with other students, she said.
They won’t learn the life skills they need to become independent if we isolate them from other kids. Additionally, it makes them incapable of knowing what they are able of,” she continued.
Empower families
Additionally, according to Ms. Nataorn, parents of children with mental and intellectual disability have the most difficult time accepting the reality of their kids because they think their kids are “inferior” when compared to others.
Therefore, she said, it is necessary to give parents more confidence in their son’s abilities because learning is unlock that potential.
When they accept their kids as what they are, families should enroll the children with the authorities so that the children can receive the necessary support from the government, such as health security, career, learning and socialisation.
The Department of People with Disabilities Empowerment, according to Ms. Nataorn, is always there to assist those with disability.
Because it takes a long medical examination to determine a person’s illness, kids or people with this kind of illness are not registered with us, she said.
We must give parents the power to allow their children file, which will enable them to gain access to security and welfare, making them stronger in the future. “