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Kailash Satyarthi
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Biography Highlights
- Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2014): Honored for combating child labor and advocating children's rights worldwide.
- Founder of the Global March Against Child Labour: Led a global movement across 100+ countries to end child labor and promote education.
- Architect of the 100 Million Campaign: Heads a youth-driven initiative to end violence against children and uplift marginalized youth.
Biography
Kailash Satyarthi: Championing the Rights of Every Child
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a social reformer par excellence, stands as one of the tallest leaders and the loudest voice for the oppressed and voiceless. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his ‘struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.’ A global thought leader and the founder of the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, his dedication to social reforms is unparalleled. His fearless and unrelenting policy advocacy efforts towards the elimination of violence against the powerless have resulted in path-breaking legislations globally.
Through his organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Mr. Satyarthi has liberated more than 130,000 children from child labour, slavery, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation and developed a successful model for their education, rehabilitation, and reintegration into mainstream society. The Global March Against Child Labour, which he led, galvanized support in 103 countries, resulting in the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which went on to become the only universally ratified convention in the history of the ILO.
He is also the founding president of the Global Campaign for Education, an exemplary civil society movement working to end the global education crisis. He successfully spearheaded a countrywide movement to make education a Constitutional Provision which subsequently paved the way for the Right to Free and Compulsory Education in India in 2009. Mr Satyarthi is credited for establishing GoodWeave International (previously known as Rugmark), a first-of-its-kind certification and social labelling mechanism for child labour-free carpets in South Asia. He has worked to advance ethical business practices, to help businesses liberate their supply chains from child labour.
He has been at the forefront of driving child-related agendas into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which resulted in the UN Secretary-General appointing him an SDG Advocate in 2021. Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation is ensuring an end to the exploitation of children in India and around the world by addressing the inequality, injustice and discrimination that lie at the core of child labour. Mr Satyarthi has dedicated his life to realising his vision of ending violence against children and building a world where every child is free to be a child.
In 2016, Mr Satyarthi launched Laureates and Leaders for Children, a platform bringing together Nobel Laureates and leaders committed to working together for the world’s most vulnerable children. Alongside former child labourers and students, he also launched the 100 Million campaign in 2016 to inspire and mobilize young people to stand up and act for their rights and the rights of their peers. Mr Satyarthi has been at the forefront of demanding social protection for vulnerable children living in African nations and other low-income countries. For him, every minute matters, every child matters and every childhood matters.
Mr Satyarthi has received several prestigious awards including the Parliamentarians for Global Action Defender of Democracy Award (2009-USA); the Alfonso Comin International Award (2008-Spain); the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award (1995-USA); the Medal of the Italian Senate (2007-Italy); Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award (1999-Germany); Wockhardt Foundation, Lifetime Achievement Award (2019); Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice (2019); Rotary International Award of Honour (2022-USA); Honorary Doctorate Degree for Social Justice and Education, Amrita University (2022- India) among many other accolades. In 2017, he received the Guinness World Record for Largest Child Safe Guarding Lesson.
Mr. Satyarthi’s life and mission embody the profound impact of compassion, illustrating its transformative power to drive meaningful change. He strongly believes that compassion is not a weak emotion but one that provides endless energy and drive to take compassionate action to alleviate others’ suffering as if it were one’s own. Through his latest movement, Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, Mr. Satyarthi aims to globalise compassion to promote a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.
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Free & Compulsory Education is a Human Right
Every child should be given equal ground and a fair start to life, and one of Kailash Satyarthi’s main missions is to urge governments and organizations across the globe towards that goal. Low child education rates in certain parts of the world often reveal corresponding poverty conditions. For example, a family with disabled parents and able children in an impoverished area has only one means to earn an income—by taking the children out of school to support the family. However, Kailash Satyarthi believes that child labor perpetuates poverty, because children without an education never develop the skills to better themselves or their standards of living. So what can be done? He will discuss what he has personally seen, and what really works to construct real change. Audiences will leave inspired to take action in this riveting presentation.
The Global Movement Against Child Labor
The fact that modern-day slavery exists in this century is a shock to most people. According to Unicef, “nearly one in four children are engaged in work that is potentially harmful to their health” in the world’s poorest countries. The International Labour Organization states that there are an estimated 168 million children (in 2014, down from 171 million in 2000). The good news is that the numbers are dropping as more people find out and become involved and demand greater transparency in business practices and supply chains. In this eye-opening presentation, Kailash Satyarthi lectures on what government, corporations, the United Nations and the public can do to ensure a healthy, safe environment for workers, free of child labor.
Corporations & Child Labor: A Worldwide Issue
When a spotlight is shined on the supply chains of the world’s largest companies, they are forced to look deep into their sources and make change. A recent rescue by Kailash Satyarthi—and its ensuing exposé—brought to light the inequities involved in Assam’s tea industry. The child labor used in India is rampant, which is why Satyarthi remains vigilant in helping the children involved. In this talk, he speaks about how the demand for cheap labor fuels poverty and child labor, as well as what can be done to give the world’s children a hopeful future.
TESTIMONIALS
Books
EVERY CHILD MATTERS
The Book of Compassion
WILL FOR CHILDREN: Empowering Children Through Wills
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