Kailash Satyarthi
Kailash Satyarthi is a long-time children’s rights activist in India and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Satyarthi was born an ii January 1954 in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh. He completed his graduation and post-graduation in electrical engineering and high voltage engineering respectively, before serving as a lecturer in a college in Bhopal.
Deeply moved by the sad state of child labour in the country, Satyarthi left his job of a professor and became Secretary-General for the Bonded Labour Liberation Front. The same year, he also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan’. Apart from it, Satyarthi has also been associated with various other missions and campaigns.
He has also led the Global March Against Child Labour and worked for its international advocacy body-The International Centre on Child Labour and Education. He has also served as the President of the global campaign for education, from its inception in 1999 to zoii, having been one of its founder members.
Besides that, Satyarthi also established Rugmark (presently known as Goodweave) as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs not manufactured from child labour in South Asia.
Satyarthi has worked relentlessly towards eradicating the social malaise of child labour, seeking to free the poor children engaged in various industries and jobs as bonded labour. He has convincingly argued that this social issue perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems.
Satyarthi serves on the board and committee of several international organisations including the Centre for Victims of Torture (USA), The International Labour Rights Fund (USA) and the International Cocoa Foundation.
He is now working to bring child labour and slavery into the post-2015 development agenda for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
For his extraordinary contribution towards uprooting child labour from South Asia and other countries, Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 alongside the Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai. Satyarthi is only the second Indian winner of Nobel Peace Prize after Mother Teresa.
Kailash Satyarthi is a gem not only for India but for the entire world for his selfless service towards making the world a better place by ensuring the basic human rights of children.
