Kailash Satyarthi: Celebrating The Nobel Laureate and Saviour Of Childhood

January 11 marks the birthday of a man who has saved more than 83,000 children from over a hundred countries. Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi is a renowned name in India; however, he is celebrated worldwide for his social reforms, especially crusading child labour, slavery, trafficking, and violence.

Road Towards Selflessness

Satyarthi was born on January 11, 1954, in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh. An engineering student in his primitive years, Satyarthi held a keen interest in social work right from the beginning.

He worked as an electrical engineer and a teacher for a couple of years, until 1980 when he dropped out and joined the Bonded Labor Liberation Front. He led the front as the general secretary.

He later founded 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan' (Save Childhood Movement) the same year, raising his voice against Child Labour practice. The movement freed thousands of children from slave-like conditions.

Call For Abolishing Child Labour

Satyarthi has highlighted child labour as a human rights issue.

The social reformer also waged his peaceful struggle through other organisations. He led the Global March Against Child Labor and its international advocacy body, International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE), an umbrella union of multiple NGOs, teachers and trades unionists, reads his website.

For 12 years, he served as the President of the Global Campaign for Education and is one of its four founders.

Prohibiting Child Labor In Global Supply Chains

In 1994, Satyarthi established GoodWeave International as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without child labour in South Asia. The organisation completed its 27 years in 2021.

Reportedly, the organisation rescued more than 6,700 children, provided quality education to nearly 26,000 of them, and deterred hundreds of thousands of children from entering labour.

According to the organisation, over 75,000 workers benefited from GoodWeave's efforts in 2018. Their campaign was also operative in Europe and the United States, raising consumer awareness of the issues related to the accountability of global corporations to socially responsible trade.

Member Of Multiple Committees

He has served on several international organisations' boards, including the Center for Victims of Torture, the International Labor Rights Fund, and the International Cocoa Foundation.

Recognised Efforts

Sathyarthi was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his struggle against the suppression of children and young people and the right of all children to education. The prominent personality is the world's fifth Nobel Prize laureate and the second Indian laureate after Mother Teresa in 1979.

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