Kailash Satyarthi Biography

Kailash Satyarthi is a renowned Indian child rights activist and the winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. He is the founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an organization dedicated towards the eradication of child labour and rehabilitation of the rescued former child workers. Child labour is a rampant problem in India where millions of young children are engaged in various forms of work instead of attending schools. Satyarthi has been working as a children’s rights activist from the past many years and has liberated over 80,000 child labourers since 1980. Even as a child he was moved by the plight of other children who were made to work by their parents, and wanted to do something for them. He studied to become an electrical engineer but this profession gave him no satisfaction. While in his mid twenties, he ditched a lucrative engineering career to work for the welfare of child labourers, many of whom were forced to work by their parents while others were held as bonded labourers by business houses. He formed the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA)—literally meaning, ‘Save Childhood Movement’—in order to cerate awareness about this widespread evil and to rescue children from the clutches of bonded labour. He has been honored with several awards for his relentless humanitarian work, including the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 which he shares with the Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzay.