“I see the world where every child is free, safe and educated.”
It is with this belief and vision that Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Laureate (2014) and a human rights activist from India, has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labour for over 35 years now. He has sought to eradicate all forms of violence against children including sexual abuse and trafficking. He has rescued over 80,000 child slaves and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
Mr Satyarthi is the architect of the single largest civil society network for the most exploited children. His movement, “The Global March Against Child Labour”, whose mobilisation of unions, civil society and children led to the adoption of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour in 1999.
India today has 444.1 million children who are 36% of the total population. In fact, India has largest child population in the world. Between 2008-12 in India, 0.452 million (4 lakh 52 thousand) cases of child trafficking for forced labour were registered. Of these, prosecution was launched in less than 6% cases and conviction awarded in less than 1% cases.
“If child labour, slavery, trafficking, and violence against children continues, we will fail to accomplish most of the development goals,” he firmly emphasises.
In December 2016, Mr Satyarthi launched the ‘100 million for 100 million’ campaign which seeks to address the issue of the lack of rights for children globally and mobilise the masses to push for a drastic change in the policy framework to strengthen our laws. With this campaign, Mr Satyarthi aims to push for the eradication of all forms of violence against children over five years.
World over, two children are sold every minute.
Between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. This trafficking is helping in generating profit of USD 32 billion annually. Approximately 80% are women and girls; up to 50% are minors.
To mobilize the support of leaders across the world, Mr Satyarthi envisioned a gathering of Nobel laureates and leaders, to harness their collective intellectual, moral and political will to build a child-free friend. The Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit held in December 2016, concentrated on building a strong moral platform for protecting all children from violence, and ensuring a world where all children are free to be children. This Summit sought to amplify the collective leadership and moral authority of Nobel laureates across different fields, world leaders and champions of children’s rights. Some of the Noble Laureate who was part of the Summit is The Dalai Lama, Her Excellency Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia (2010-13), Mr Angel Gurria, Secretary General, OCED, Princess Charlene of Monaco and Princess Laurentin of the Netherlands.
The strength of Mr Satyarthi’s passion lies in the belief that youth across the world are looking to change the mindset of people and the norms of law to protect and nurture children. With his undying efforts to help children afford the childhood they deserve, Mr Satyarthi has established that child labour is responsible for the perpetuation of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population explosion and many other social evils, in India. He firmly believes in children’s freedom from all kinds of exploitation- be it sexual, physical or mental, and is determined to continue to fight for their safety, security and happiness, till violence against children is eradicated across the world.