Call it irony or coincidence that at a time when India and Pakistan are at a stand-off situation on the borders the joint sharing of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize by India’s Kailash Satyarthi with Pakistani child rights activist Yousafzai Malala is not only a tribute to the single-man crusade against the social malady of exploitation of children but to a child crusader who took the Islamists Taliban single handedly. She gained global recognition after pledging to continue her struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism. Peace has no boundaries and barriers. It is matter of pride for the sub-continent. Their contribution to the society is much higher in terms of human values. Satyarthi’s organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) – the Save Childhood Movement, has single-handedly brought to centre-stage the debate on child rights in India. Satyarthi and the BBA have so far freed 80,000 children from servitude, including bonded labourers, and helped in their successful re-integration, rehabilitation and education. Officially there are only about five million child workers in India, but NGOs and others say the actual figure is ten times as much. Satyarthi, 60, has been a persistent campaigner worldwide on social issues involving children. Satyarthi gave up a promising career as an electrical engineer at the age of 26, has since highlighted child labour as a human rights issue as well as a welfare matter and charitable cause. He has argued that it perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems. Several prestigious awards have been conferred on him, including Defenders of Democracy Award (2009-US), Alfonso Comin International Award (2008-Spain), Medal of the Italian Senate (2007-Italy), and Robert F. Kennedy International Human Rights Award (US). Malala Yousafzai 17, became the first teenager to be awarded the prize. While travelling to school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head in retaliation for her campaign for girls to be given equal rights to schooling, defying threats from militants in her hometown of Mingora. The bullet struck just above her left eye, grazing her brain. She now attends school in Birmingham, England, where her father works at the consulate, after being flown to Britain for emergency treatment.
