Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labour since 1980. Child labour is a human rights issue that has staggering effects on poverty, illiteracy and humanity. Mr. Satyarthi and the grassroots movement founded by him, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), have liberated more than 85,000+ children from exploitation and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
Child labour is a human rights issue that has staggering effects on poverty, illiteracy and humanity. Mr. Satyarthi and the grassroots movement founded by him, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), have liberated more than 85,000+ children from exploitation and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
As a worldwide campaigner, he has been the architect of the single largest civil society network for the most exploited children, the Global March Against Child Labour, which is a worldwide coalition of NGOs, Teachers’ Unions and Trade Unions active in 103 countries. Mr. Satyarthi’s efforts led to the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on worst forms of child labour in 1999.
He was also the Founding President of the Global Campaign for Education, a civil society movement working to end the global education crisis, and GoodWeave International, which was one of the first consumer awareness programmes and the earliest example of modern corporate social responsibility.
Mr. Satyarthi is a member of several high level groups on child labour and education. He is one of the rare civil society leaders to have addressed the United Nations General Assembly, International Labour Conference, UN Human Rights Commission, UNESCO and is one of the commissioners of the high-level International Commission on the Financing of Global Education Opportunities.
In 2014, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the “struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”
Mr. Satyarthi’s efforts to end child slavery, trafficking, forced labour and violence received international support when in September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations included child protection and welfare-related clauses included.
To achieve his vision of a world where children can live freely with dignity and have the fundamental right to be free, safe, healthy and educated, thereby realizing their potential, he has founded the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to end all violence against and exploitation of children by focusing on three Ps: Policy, Practice and People.
