Child rights in India have been a topic of concern for decades where children are forced to labour when they should be studying for a brighter future. The subject of child rights finished its search for advocacy in one of the most active social activists named Kailash Satyarthi. Kailash Satyarthi, whose original name was Kailash Sharma, was born on January 11, 1954, in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.
Right from his childhood days, he used to help anyone who was underprivileged and needed support. As a child, he formed a football club to raise money for underprivileged kids and help pay their school fees.
He also campaigned actively to develop a textbook bank for kids who could not afford to pay for them. In 1974, Kailash Satyarthi graduated from the Samrat Ashok Technological Institute in Vidisha with an electrical engineering degree.
After he relocated to New Delhi in 1977, he eventually established a magazine named Sangharsh Jaari Rahega to document the lives of vulnerable and underprivileged people.
From there, Kailash Satyarthi grew increasingly concerned about the plight of children in India and how they are forced into child labour. He realised that borderline family poverty was compelling the children to work, earn and try to have enough to buy one day’s food. It led to him founding the revolutionary NGO named Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in 1980.
Kailash Satyarthi, along with the volunteers of BBA, freed thousands of children from factories around India who were forced to earn by their parents or were offered as loan repayment after the parents were unable to pay back.
In 1990, Kailash Satyarthi constructed numerous ashrams around India to help the freed children stay free of cost and study without doing any labour. As a result of Kailash Satyarthi’’s decades-long efforts, the Indian government launched a program named ‘Bal Mitra Gram’, where child labour was banned from Indian villages. Till now, over 350 villages have adopted the program, with numerous others transforming into child-friendly villages.
In 2014, Kailash Satyarthi was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize along with Pakistani education reformer Malala Yousafzai. The granting of the Nobel Peace Prize Award to Kailash Satyarthi was considered to be the most justified for a person who has spent his whole life for the betterment of underprivileged children worldwide. It was because of the brilliance of Kailash Satyarthi that the world's attention shifted towards ending the grave exploitation of children for financial gains.
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