Nobel Laureate kailash Satyarthi gets ‘Harvard Humanitarian of the Year Award’ 2015

• published: 17 Oct 2015
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Subscribe to see more. Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian children's rights and education advocate and an activist against child labour. He founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries. In recognition of his continuing contribution to the cause of child rights. Kailash Satyarthi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his decadeslong campaign on children’s rights, will become the first Indian to be awarded the title of “Humanitarian of the Year” by the Harvard Foundation. The annual award by the prestigious university is given to an individual whose works and deeds have served to improve the quality of lives and have inspired people to greater heights. The Harvard Foundation has been rewarding individuals whose “works and deeds have served to improve the quality of lives” with the humanitarian award since 1984. That year, it was awarded to Martin Luther King Sr., a civil rights leader. The United Nations current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Pakistani girls education activist Malala Yousafzai, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Satyarthi, are among recent winners. Mr. Satyarthi is the first Indian to have been given this award. Fighting against child slavery : The university said the ‘Harvard Humanitarian of the Year’ has been awarded to Mr. Satyarthi for his contributions in the field of child rights and abolition of child slavery. 1. Born on January 11, 1954, in Vidisha, located near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Kailash Satyarthi, showing great personal courage and maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain. 2. For his work, Satyarthi has endured death threats and attempts at incarceration, and two of his colleagues were even murdered on the job. But he continues with his campaign because, he says, "somebody has to accept the challenge whatever dangers are there.” 3. He gave up his career as an electrical engineer more than 30 years ago to start `Bachpan Bachao Andolan`. 4. He recently succeeded in getting child protection and welfare-related clauses included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which aim to end slavery, trafficking, forced labour and violence. “I humbly accept the award on behalf of millions of left out children, for whose rights we strive to work for. Let us all pledge together to eradicate child slavery from the world,” the social activist said in his acceptance speech on Friday. “Even developed countries, including the Unites States, have hundreds of slaves who are forced into labour, pushed into sex trade or trafficked into domestic labour. Undocumented immigrants, people in the margins of the society are pulled into a circuit of slavery,” Mr. Satyarthi said. 5. In past, this award has been conferred upon luminaries such as Martin Luther King Sr., Secretaries-General of the United Nations: Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Javier Perez de Cuellar, and Ban Ki-moon; Nobel laureates: Jose Ramos-Horta, Bishop Desmond Tutu, John Hume, and Elie Wiesel; Ethel Kennedy, R.C. Gorman, artist and Thorbjorn Jagland, head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, to name a few. 6. The organisation (Bachpan Bachao Andolan) launched a historic Nathdwara temple entry march in 1988 where Dalits (untouchables non-Hindus) were strictly prohibited for 400 years. Kailash Satyarthi and 5 Dalit bonded labourers were brutally beaten up by orthodox priest. 7. As a student, Satyarthi used to study under the lamp post on a met at night as there was no power supply in his hometown Vidisha. 8. He is the first India-born person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the seventh Indian Nobel laureate. Mother Teresa, who was born in Albania, was the first Indian Nobel peace prize winner. She was honoured in 1979. 9. Several prestigious awards have been conferred on him, including Defenders of Democracy Award (2009-US), Medal of the Italian Senate (2007-Italy), Robert F Kennedy International Human Rights Award (USA) and Fredric Ebert International Human Rights Award (Germany) etc. 10. He created the Global March Against Child Labour, a movement that is active in many countries. 11. He is also credited with establishing Rugmark, now known as Good Weave, in 1994. It is a kind of social certification for child labour free carpets in South Asia. 12. Satyarthi has contributed to the development of important international conventions on children’s rights.