Award goes to 16 crore children across the world still deprived of their childhood, says Kailash Satyarthi

Till Friday morning, it was like any other day at the Bachpan Bachao Andolan office in Govindpuri, where Kailash Satyarthi had tea with some of the rescued children and co-workers. By afternoon, as news spread of his getting the Nobel Peace Prize, he was the most sought after man.

Amidst the frenzy that broke out after the declaration of the Nobel Peace Prize, between obliging the media, friends and well-wishers who swarmed his office, he suddenly went into another room where US president Barack Obama was on the phone to congratulate him. Satyarthi spoke to Obama for ten minutes. This was followed by a call from the Peace Prize Committee. He was to meet prime minister Narendra Modi a little later.

"As you gather around me to click my pictures, take bytes from me, I recall all those children who are still working for some family, or are breaking away stones in a mine, or are taking out hot bricks from a kiln. They remain invisible and unnoticed," he told reporters dedicating his award to the 16 crore child labourers who are still stuck in collieries. "This award also goes to those 16 crore children across the world who are still languishing in various jobs and are deprived of their childhood, their education, their health-care and their fundamental right to freedom," said Kailash Satyarthi.

Satyarthi, a pioneer of the fight against child labour, has till now been responsible for freeing of more than 83,000 children from over 144 countries, is the first Indian to have won the prize and shares it with the Pakistani child activist who took a bullet to her head in her defiance to go to school.

A release from the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said the prize was given to Satyarthi and Yousafzai "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".

60-year-old Satyarthi, who gave up his job as a civil engineer to take up the cudgels against child labour, said that a young boy of 5 had inspired him to take up the fight. "When I started going to school at the age of 5 or 6 in my hometown Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, I saw a boy of my own age who used to work at the doorstep of my school. I asked my teachers why did he have a life so different than mine, and they said that it was because he was poor. Then I asked his father, who said that we are born to work," said Satyarthi, adding it is a big myth that poverty perpetuates child labour. "Let me also tell you that it is an absolute myth that poverty causes and perpetuates child labour. Child labour causes poverty and perpetuates poverty and illiteracy. We cannot hide behind the argument of poverty and rob a child of his childhood. It is unacceptable."

Satyarthi was responsible for two of the largest civil society movements — the Global March Against Child Labour, a worldwide coalition of NGOs, Teachers' Union and Trade Unions, and the Global Campaign for Education.

He is also the co-founder and member of the High Level Panel on Education along with Kofi Annan, Gordon Brown, Graca Michel, Queen Rania and other world leaders. He has addressed the UN General Assembly, UNHRC, UNESCO, International Labour Conference and several Parliamentary hearings.

As the news of his win broke on social media, it turned away the tide of Indian and Pakistan tweeters who were fighting with each other given the situation in the border areas. Satyarthi felt that it was a huge statement by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to have given the award to him and Yousafzai at the same time. "It is a big statement from the Nobel Committee, and the statement has to be read in between the lines not just by the governments but by the people of both countries, too. I have been working in Pakistan for many years, have travelled there and have rescued labourers there, too. We have to believe in peace. It is humankind's curse that children need to be born free. Peace in inevitable. We talk of prosperity and rights, we cannot ignore the fundamental principle of peace," said Satyarthi.

Originally published on October 11, 2014