NEW DELHI: Possibly India's best known face against child labour, Kailash Satyarthi shares this year's Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani child rights activist Malala. He and his organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) - the Save Childhood Movement, have single-handedly brought to centre-stage the debate on child rights in India.
"Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime," Satyarthi told The Associated Press at his office in New Delhi. "If any child is a child slave in any part of the world, it is a blot on humanity. It is a disgrace."
The Nobel committee said: 'Satyarthi, 60, has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, "focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.'
Here's all that you need to know about Kailash Satyarthi:
#1 A human rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi has been at the forefront of a movement in India to end child slavery and exploitative child labour since 1980. Satyarthi has helped free children from slave-labor conditions and advocated for reforms, as director of the South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude and leader of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. In 1994, he founded a group now known as Goodweave, which certifies child-labor-free rugs and provides assistance to rescued and at-risk children.
#2 Kailash Satyarthi has headed various forms of peaceful protests and demonstrations, focusing on the exploitation of children for financial gain.
#3 In 1980, Kailash Satyarthi gave up his job as an electrical engineer to begin the crusade to end exploitation of children in India. As a grassroots activist, he rescued of over 78,500 children who were employed as child labours and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
#4 He was instrumental in making the problem of child labour in India as a human rights issue. He has established that child labor is responsible for the perpetuation of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population explosion and many other social evils.
#5 Satyarthi has also played an important role in linking the fight against child labor with the efforts for achieving 'Education for All'.
#6 The Nobel Laureate is a member of a high level group formed by UNESCO on Education for all comprising of select Presidents, Prime Ministers and UN Agency Heads.
#7 Kailash Satyarthi has survived numerous attacks on his life during his crusade to end child labour, the most recent being the attack on him and his colleagues while rescuing child slaves from garment sweatshops in Delhi on 17 March 2011.
#8 In 2004 while rescuing children from a local circus mafia, Kailash Satyarthi and his colleagues were brutally attacked. Despite of these attacks and his office being ransacked a number of times his commitment for the cause has been unwavering.
#9 Satyarthi has been honoured by the Former US President Bill Clinton in Washington for featuring in Kerry Kennedy's Book ‘Speak Truth to Power', where his life and work featured among the top 50 human rights defenders in the world.
#10 Wikipedia states that Satyarthi has been the subject of a number of documentaries, television series, talk shows, advocacy and awareness films.
He has also won many international awards, including:
· 2014: Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Malala Yousafzai
· 2009: Defenders of Democracy Award (US)
· 2008: Alfonso Comin International Award (Spain)
· 2007: Medal of the Italian Senate (2007)
· 2007: recognized in the list of "Heroes Acting to End Modern Day Slavery" by the US State Department[3]
· 2006: Freedom Award (US)
· 2002: Wallenberg Medal, awarded by the University of Michigan[4]
· 1999: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Award (Germany)[5]
· 1995: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (US)[6]
· 1985: The Trumpeter Award (US)
· 1984: The Aachener International Peace Award (Germany)
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