Kailash Satyarthi : The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world.
Born on 11 January 1954 in Madhya Pradesh, Satyarthi is a renowned leader in the global movement against child labour. He is associated with large number of international organisations located in 140 countries. Additionally, he has successfully headed a countrywide movement to make education a Constitutional Provision which subsequently paved way for the Right of children for free and compulsory education in 2009 in India.
He has transformed more than 350 Indian villages into places where children can receive an education rather than be sent out to work. Satyarthi by all means proves Nelson Mandela’s word: “Safety and security don’t just happen; they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”
Illegal employment of children has emerged as a huge source of illicit earnings and corruption. These children are employed not just because of parental poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, but due to the fact that employers benefit immensely from child labour as children come across as the cheapest option sometimes even for free. So, Satyarthi’s group works with law-enforcement agencies to rescue child workers and help them rebuild their lives. The shelters run by the organisation offer schooling and teach children about their rights.
His team works with the police to reunite children with their parents when possible. In cases where parents sold their children, or when the child’s origins can’t be determined, they are transferred to a long-term halfway house. There, in additional to funding a child’s schooling, they offer vocational courses in stitching, welding and gardening.
Kailash Satyarthi is the leader of two of the largest civil society movements: the Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL), a worldwide coalition of NGOs, Teachers’ Union and Trade Unions, and the other being Global Campaign for Education. The GMACL campaign was instrumental in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) decision to change its outdated policy on child labour. With his strategies, he is now working on bringing child labour and slavery in the post-2015 development agenda for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In addition, to the GMACL, other organisations he has founded and or led include Bachpan Bachao Andolan, and the Goodweave Foundation. Satyarthi 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. He has addressed the UN General Assembly, International Labour Conference, UN Human Rights Commission, UNESCO, etc and has been invited to several Parliamentary Hearings and Committees in USA, Germany and UK in the recent past.
