As the Nobel prizes for this year have been declared, India once again shines on the Global horizon. While India struggles for the peace on the border, there still are many causes which degrades the India’s development within. Fighting against such causes is a name Kailash Satyarthi , which emerged out of nowhere and surprised everyone by winning Nobel prize for peace which he shares with Malala Yousofzai. Although the name appears to be coming out of nowhere, there is an entire history to read about this great name.
Born on January 11, 1954, a human rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi has been a pioneer in India to end child slavery and exploitative child labour since 1980. Satyarthi has helped free children from slave-labour 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-labou
r-free rugs and provides assistance to rescued and at-risk children.
Kailash Satyarthi has headed various forms of peaceful
protests and demonstrations, focusing on the exploitation of children for
financial gain. In 1980, Kailash Satyarthi gave up his job as an electrical
engineer to begin the crusade to end exploitation of children in India. As an
activist, he rescued of over 78,500 children who were employed as child labours
and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
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. Satyarthi
has also played an important role in linking the fight against child labor with
the efforts for achieving 'Education for All'.
The Nobel Laureate Satyarth 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.
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. 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.
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.
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, few of them are
listed below:
·
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
·
2006: Freedom Award (US)
·
2002: Wallenberg Medal, awarded by the
University of Michigan
·
1999: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Award (Germany)
·
1995: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (US)
·
1985: The Trumpeter Award (US)
·
1984: The Aachener International Peace Award
(Germany)
With such a magnificent record of achievements to his credit, Kailash Satyarthi is completely worthy of the Nobel prize. All the more this seems to amend the mistake of not giving the Nobel to Mahatma Gandhi.
Click here to know all the Indian Nobel Laureates and Why Gandhi ji was never given Nobel.
Click here to know all the Indian Nobel Laureates and Why Gandhi ji was never given Nobel.
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