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Nobel Peace Prize 2014 – Awarded Jointly to Kailash Satyarthi & Malala
Yousafzai
Kailash Satyarthi
Unlike Malala he is not a global celebrity, nor
has he been feted internationally – either by media or governments. In fact
not many had heard of him even at home in India. “Who is he?” asked many.
The low-profile activist is the seventh Indian to win a Nobel Prize.
Kailash Satyarthi, 60, has been campaigning in
Gandhian manner against child labour, bonded child labour (a form of
slavery), and for better education of children in South Asia. Born in
Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, his father was a police officer. Kailash gave up a
career as an electrical engineer and "dedicated his life to helping the
millions of children in India who are forced into slavery by powerful and
corrupt business- and landowners" Speaking to Jason Burke of The Guardian, Satyarthi
said, “It is a challenge definitely and I know that it is a long battle to
fight, but slavery is unacceptable, it is a crime against humanity. I’m not
talking in legal terms; morally I feel I cannot tolerate the loss of freedom
of any single child in my own country so I am a kind of restless person in
that sense. We cannot accept this to happen.” Courageously mounting raids on factories and
carpet-making units where children were usually employed in terrible working
conditions, he has had to face violence many a time. "After successfully freeing and rehabilitating
thousands of children, he went on to build up a global movement against
child labour. Today Kailash heads up the Global March Against Child Labour,
a conglomeration of 2000 social-purpose organizations and trade unions in
140 countries." - PBS "Since 1980, he has led the rescue of over 75,000
bonded and child slaves in India and developed a successful model for their
education and rehabilitation. Kailash has emancipated thousands of children
from bonded labour, a form of slavery where a desperate family typically
borrows needed funds from a lender (sums as little as $35) and is forced to
hand over a child as surety until the funds can be repaid," the RFK Center
says. Truly a well-deserved award!
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