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Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has been leading the global fight against child slavery for over three decades. As the founder of a grassroots nonprofit, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save Childhood Movement, he has rescued more than 80,000 Indian children to date from various forms of exploitation from child labor to child trafficking.
Kailash’s work has involved organizing almost weekly raid, rescue and recovery missions on workplaces that employ and enslave children. Since 2001, Satyarthi’s has risked his own life to rescue these children and has convinced families in more than 300 Indian villages to avoid sending their children to work, and instead putting them in school.
Satyarthi’s has also managed to grab and retain the world’s attention on the problem. He organized the Global March Against Child Labor in the 1990s to raise awareness and free millions of children shackled in various forms of modern slavery. His activism was also instrumental in the adoption of Convention No. 182 by the International Labour Organization, a statue that's become a guideline for many governments on child labor.
In 2014, he and Malala Yousafzai were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”
Most recently, Satyarthi was named to Fortune's list of "The World's 50 Greatest Leaders."
Videos
Speech Topics
Corporations and Child Labor: A Worldwide Issue
When a spotlight is shined on the supply chains of the world’s largest companies, they are forced to look deep into their sources and make change. A recent rescue by Kailash Satyarthi—and its ensuing exposé—brought to light the inequities involved in Assam’s tea industry. The child labor used in India is rampant, which is why Satyarthi remains vigilant in helping the children involved. In this talk, he speaks about how the demand for cheap labor fuels poverty and child labor, as well as what can be done to give the world’s children a hopeful future.
Free and Compulsory Education is a Human Right
Every child should be given equal ground and a fair start to life, and one of Kailash Satyarthi’s main missions is to urge governments and organizations across the globe towards that goal. Low child education rates in certain parts of the world often reveal corresponding poverty conditions. For example, a family with disabled parents and able children in an impoverished area has only one means to earn an income—by taking the children out of school to support the family. However, Kailash Satyarthi believes that child labor perpetuates poverty, because children without an education never develop the skills to better themselves or their standards of living. So what can be done? He will discuss what he has personally seen, and what really works to construct real change. Audiences will leave inspired to take action in this riveting presentation.
The Global Movement Against Child Labor
The fact that modern-day slavery exists in this century is a shock to most people. According to Unicef, “nearly one in four children are engaged in work that is potentially harmful to their health” in the world’s poorest countries. The International Labour Organization states that there are an estimated 168 million children (in 2014, down from 171 million in 2000). The good news is that the numbers are dropping as more people find out and become involved and demand greater transparency in business practices and supply chains. In this eye-opening presentation, Kailash Satyarthi lectures on what government, corporations, the United Nations and the public can do to ensure a healthy, safe environment for workers, free of child labor.
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