The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Pakistani teenager and girls’ rights advocate, Malala Yousafzai, alongside Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.
As most of us already know, Malala Yousafzai’s struggle to advance women’s right to education in Pakistan gained world notoriety when she was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in 2012. She has since gone on to become a global advocate for education for women and girls, participating in events at the United Nations, as well as being feared as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME magazine in 2013.
But who is Kailash Satyarthi?
Awarded for his work campaigning for the rights of children, 60-year-old Satyarthi is the Founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (translated: “Save the Childhood Movement”), an organisation that campaigns for the protection of children and ensures that they have “equality education”. The organisation has also rescued over 82,000 victims of human trafficking, slavery and child labour and re-integrated them back into society.
Satyarthi has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi by heading various forms of peaceful protests, “focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain,” the Nobel committee said at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
“It’s a great honour for all the Indians, it’s an honour for all those children who have been still living in slavery despite of all the advancement in technology, market and economy. And I dedicate this award to all those children in the world.” – Kailash Satyarthi
Despite the tremendous amount of work Satyarthi has done for children in India, the country never recognised his efforts until he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Telegraph reported that on 10.02am on Friday, Satyarthi had only 100 followers on Twitter. An hour later, he had over 5,000 followers as people around the world begin to question why they have never heard of Kailash Satyarthi before.
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