Nobel laureate calls for world to take stand against child labor

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi said he believes child labor can be eradicated in his lifetime, calling for everyone in the world to "take a stand" against the practice.

Satyarthi, 60, was jointly awarded the prize on Friday with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage education campaigner shot by the Taliban in 2012.

The Indian activist was recognized for decades of doggedly championing children's rights in his home country and worldwide, arguing that poverty should not be an excuse for child labor.

The Nobel Prize has given the anti-child labor movement new "global visibility" and "should be a mobilizing factor", Satyarthi said.

"I am hopeful this (practice) can end in my lifetime," he said.

But for child labor to be wiped out, "You, me, everyone must take a stand. Otherwise, it won't be possible," he said.

"That means saying 'no' to products made by children," Satyarthi added.

"It's a question of humanizing the problem and seeing each child as a person caught in a desperate situation."

Satyarthi quit his electrical engineering career in 1980 to set up the grassroots Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save Childhood Movement, based in New Delhi, which rescues children working under often-horrifying conditions.

Matter of debate

He recounts that he was inspired "by a passion to help child workers" when as a 6-year-old, he saw another boy his age, who could not go to school because his family was too poor, repairing shoes.

The low-profile father-of - two in 1994 started Rugmark, now called GoodWeave International, that tags carpets as child-labor free and heads the Global March Against Child Labor, which unites 2,000 social groups and unions in 140 nations.

The number of child workers worldwide has fallen by a third since 2000, but still remains as high as 168 million children, according to the International Labor Organization.

The tally of child workers in India is a matter of debate, but UNICEF, the UN children's agency, estimates around 28 million Indian children are employed.

In 2010, India passed a landmark Right to Education law, which provides free, compulsory schooling to children up to 14, but the law is only patchily enforced.

Promising futures

"Things have improved in India, but the laws must be enforced and strengthened," Satyarthi said.

The Nobel award "shines the light on these voiceless" child workers employed in such jobs as mining, agriculture and construction, making carpets and jewelry and as store helpers and servants, he said.

Children routinely work at least 12 hours a day while many are sexually exploited, according to Indian activists and police.

The Bachpan Bachao Andolan website says the group has "rescued more than 82,800 victims of trafficking, slavery and child labor" and helped them "find promising futures".

AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 10/13/2014 page10)