Bio

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 grassroot movement founded by him, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), have liberated more than 90,000 children from exploitation and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation. Mr. Satyarthi established a short term rehabilitation centre ‘Mukti Ashram’ in the outskirts of Delhi and a long term rehabilitation centre ‘Bal Ashram’ at Virat Nagar near Jaipur in India. These rehabilitation centers for children rescued from exploitation, slavery and servitude are ideal and replicable models for child care institutions not only in India but overseas as well. 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' Union and Trade Unions active in 140 countries. Mr. Satyarthi’s efforts led to the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on worst forms of child labour in 1999. He is also the founding president of the Global Campaign for Education, an exemplar civil society movement working to end the global education crisis and GoodWeave International for raising consumer awareness and positive action in the carpet industry. Mr. Satyarthi is a member of several High Level Groups on Child Labour and Education. As one of the rare civil society leaders he has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, International Labour Conference, UN Human Rights Commission, UNESCO, etc. and has been invited to several Parliamentary Hearings and Committees in USA, Germany and UK in the recent past. He has also been conferred some of the most prestigious awards from countries like US, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Italy, among others. In 2014, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”