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HT THIS DAY: October 11, 2014 — Peace Nobel united India, Pak: Kailash Satyarthi shares prize with Malala Yousafzai
Kailash Satyarthi has been heading a more than three-decade-long campaign for child rights in India, while Malala Yousafzai is a schoolgirl and education campaigner who was shot in the head by the Taliban two years ago for advocating girls’ right to education
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NEW DELHI: Child rights activists Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (October 10), a rare sharing of an honour
between the nuclear-armed nations locked in their worst border conflict in a decade.
Little known in his own country, Satyarthi has been heading a more than three-decade-long campaign for child rights, pushing for their education and fighting against child trafficking and bonded labour.
Yousafzai, aged 17, is a schoolgirl and education campaigner who was shot in the head by the Taliban two years ago for advocating girls’ right to education.
“The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism,” said Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel jury said the prize was going to the two for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.
Satyarthi dedicated the Nobel Peace Prize to children in slavery, pledging to join hands with fellow laureate Yousafzai.
“I am thankful to the Nobel Committee for recognising the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age. It is a huge honour for me,” said the 60-year-old activist, the second Indian to win a Nobel Peace Prize after Mother Teresa.
Satyarthi said he spoke with Malala after the announcement and now hoped to work with her for peace.
“Children should be born and grow in peace ... I will definitely invite Malala to come and work with me,” he said at his office after the announcement. “The fact that the prize has been given to an Indian and a Pakistani is a big statement from the Nobel Committee and this statement has to be read not only by the government but the public too.”
Malala, who was in school when the Nobel was announced, urged the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers to attend the prize ceremony. “I want India and Pakistan to talk about peace and focus on education and development … I request Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to join us when we receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” she said in Birmingham, England, where she is now based.
“I’m feeling honoured that I’m being chosen as a Nobel laureate. I’m proud that I’m the first Pakistani and the first young woman, or the first young person, who is getting this award,” she said. “The award is not for me but for every child in the world. This is not the end of the campaign I started, but the beginning. I want to see every child in the world go to school. I want every child to stand up for their rights, to receive quality education, not to suffer child labour, child trafficking.”
After the announcement in Oslo, joyous celebrations broke out at Satyarthi’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan office in Kalkaji as friends and family distributed sweets and activists hugged each other.
Modi congratulated Satyarthi on winning the Peace Nobel. “Shri Kailash Satyarthi has devoted his life to a cause that is extremely relevant to entire humankind. I salute his determined efforts,” he tweeted.
The New Delhi - based Bachpan Bachao Andolan has been at the forefront of the fight against child labour, creating domestic and international consumer resistance to products made by bonded children as well as with direct legal and advocacy work.
Satyarthi, an electrical engineer by training, has rescued some 80,000 children sold to pay their parents’ debts and helped them find new lives.
