by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Social Entrepreneur
Kailash Satyarthi
By Nivedita,
New Delhi : Kailash Satyarthi’s life has been converted into a film named “The Price of Free” directed by Derek Doneen and produced by Davis Guggenheim whose previous project includes “He Named Me Malala”.
The Nobel Peace Laureate says that one of the biggest endeavours of this film is to reach out and inspire the youth of this world to stand up for the rights of the not-so-privileged children.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, “The Price of Free” (formerly titled ‘Kailash’) is a suspenseful yet intimate look at one man’s groundbreaking struggle to liberate every child possible from slavery.
Talking about how important the film is for the world to see, Satyarthi told IANS, here: “‘The Price of Free’ has a strong message for corporate, consumers, law makers and enforcement agencies alike to do their bit for the most marginalised children who are languishing as child labourers and have been left out of the photo frame of socio-economic development.
“As you read this, there are 150 million child labourers with their hopes dashed and life being wasted. Out of these nearly 73 million are in severely precarious conditions as victims of trafficking, child slavery, sexual exploitation, child marriages, forced beggar and as child combatants among others.”
He said that one of the biggest endeavours of the film was to reach out to, and inspire, the youth of this world to stand up for the rights of the not so privileged children. “The cause of 100 million for 100 million campaign that we launched earlier in 2016 is linked with the message that ‘The Price of Free’ wants to convey to the youth who have the power, idealism, strong will and leadership qualities to help create a child friendly world,” he said.
“This film engages, sensitises ad inspires the youth. The documentary also emphasises for united and coherent efforts of various constituencies like children, youth, teachers, parliamentarians, faith leaders, businesses at a global level to ensure that rights of all children are upheld and no one is left behind,” he added.
Satyarthi also feels that ‘The Price of Free’ is in fact the most powerful tool to vitalise the global movement to end violence against children.
“This film signifies hope, optimism, possibilities and gives solutions for the problems faced by the most marginalised children of the world. I strongly believe that if one is not a part of the solution then one is the problem itself,” he said.
Building a strong rationale and argument against child labour and exploitation, the film calls upon everybody to stand up for the rights of the children. “I strongly feel that this film will instil a deeper moral responsibility particularly in Indians as they will get to learn more about the worldwide struggle initiated and led by another Indian,” he said.
The film project started around three years back when producer Guggenheim, who also won an Oscar for “The Inconvenient Truth”, approached Satyarthi for a film on his life and work. He had attended the Nobel Prize ceremony in 2014 and fell in love with the subject.
Guggenheim’s team led by director Derek Doneen, followed Nobel Peace Laureate and his colleagues for nearly two-and-a-half years to observe his work and film raid and rescue operations for freeing children from slavery and exploitation.
YouTube Original documentary released the film on November 2 in New York and November 9 in Los Angeles, before its launch on the platform on November 27 in India. The film has received 1.5 million views in two days.
Talking about how India had moved towards eradicating child slavery, he says, “India has made substantive headway in addressing the issue of child labour and slavery.”
With efforts of governments (central and state), law enforcement agencies, civil society, teachers and youth organisations and trade unions the number of child labourers had significantly come down after the turn of this century.
“India has some of the best and most progressive laws against child exploitation but the challenge lies in effective implementation of these laws. There is a huge pendency of trials in crimes against children in our courts of law. Children trapped in slavery cannot afford to wait and so shouldn’t we. All of us have to join hands in emancipating children and ensuring their freedom, health, safety and education,” he said.
Talking about what he had to suffer during his struggle to save children, Satyarthi says that “someone will have to pay the price of freedom” for the most marginalised persons.
“It won’t come served on a platter. I feel humbled to be able to empower the children. In my mission to free the children, many people may have become my enemies over the last four decades but the fact remains that I have made millions of friends as well,” he said.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Nivedita,
Noida : Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who has travelled to different countries to fight for children’s rights, feels India is going through an “epidemic” situation where no child is safe even inside their houses. This, he says, needs immediate attention.
“Children and their issues have to be be addressed now. Politicians can wait for the next election and prioritise their issues, but the children cannot wait for the next day or next hour,” Satyarthi told IANS here.
“A child could be in danger, could be raped, could be trafficked or could be stolen, so that is the time when you need immediate response and do all the preventive measures which is not normally not done in society,” he said.
The activist was at the Superhits 93.5 RED FM’s office here as the radio station has come up with another edition of their annual “Bajao For A Cause” initiative and this year they have associated with The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation to raise money for ‘Surakshit Bachpan Fund’. RED FM is also bringing the stories of brave survivor on-air for this CSR initiative.
Satyarthi created ‘Surakshit Bachpan Fund’ in the wake of his Bharat Yatra to combat child sexual abuse and trafficking. The lack of medical, rehabilitation, educational, vocational and legal structure and aide for victims and survivors of child sexual assault and their families made him come up with this fund.
“This is an important initiative not just to create awareness but also to engage people for a bigger cause that is a moral epidemic and is growing in our society very fast. The children are not safe inside their homes, schools, buses, public places and no parents can feel fearless for their children if they do not come back home,” he said.
“So this will definitely help in creating awareness where people can speak out, especially children who can talk about sexual abuse. Many a times they don’t talk because it is considered a social taboo. The most unfortunate part of this sickness of our society is that we stigmatise the victim and protect the offenders,” he said.
“We are fighting on all these issues,” he added.
Satyarthi says he created Surakshit Bachpan Fund when he spoke to rape victims and children who have faced sexual abuse.
“We can keep on fighting with the government for their policies and actions but let us begin ourselves. They not only need medical support but psychological and legal support too. There’s a lot of corruption involved,” he said.
“Police delay the cases and then the government persecutors also delay things, so we don’t have adequate legal and judicial infrastructure. I thought of engaging the best lawyers, psychologist and doctors. If we have to pay, we will pay,” he added.
Satyarthi also emphasised parents to share friendly relationships with children.
“To create a child-friendly world, let us begin with family. The parents should behave as a friend and that means respecting children, respecting their childhood, respecting their voice, listening to them carefully, understanding them and not imposing yourself,” he says.
“In a society, we had this trend for ages that adults think that they are wise. But I always see and say that please sit with your children, listen to them and learn from them,” he said.
“Because of the silence of children which is imposed on them, they cannot speak out. We know that four children are raped or sexually abused every hour but that is a government statistic. Reality could be ten times, 20 times bigger and bitter,” he added.
Satyarthi, who will be travelling to Brazil later this month to address issues like child labour, sexual abuse and trafficking, says people-to-people connect with different countries is important to curb such issues globally.
He has been working with Pakistan, which faces a similar situation like India when it comes to child abuse.
Satyarthi, who jointly shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, told IANS: “I have been working in Pakistan much before my beautiful daughter was born. I was fighting and sometimes my life was in danger, sometimes I was deported from Pakistan, and sometimes the government there raised voice against me, blaming me as a RAW agent.”
He holds that Pakistani children were his children too and he has worked for them for many years. “People-to-people connect is the key. We learn how to work together through sustainable peace and the relationship building between two nations,” he said.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Kailash Satyarthi
By Nikhil M. Babu,
New Delhi : With about 7,000 children trafficked in India every year, child rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who set out on Monday on a Kanyakumari-Delhi “Bharat Yatra”, to focus attention on the issue, hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will bring in stringent legislation to curb the menace.
Satyarthi said he had spoken to prime ministers in the past but no one took the issue seriously like Modi did, though the Prime Minister had not given him a specific deadline by when Parliament would pass the proposed legislation against child trafficking.
“It is the first time a Prime Minister or any Prime Minister has taken it up,” Satyarthi told IANS in an interview before he left for Kanyakumari, adding that he was hoping that Modi would prioritise the legislation.
The 63-year-old Satyarthi, who heads the Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (Save The Childhood Movement), said the Prime Minister had personally written to him, assuring that “since the government is in power in both the houses (of Parliament)” something can be done about the legislation.
“I can’t recall any other Prime Minister writing anything about trafficking, like Modi had done,” he said referring to the letter, adding, however, that no time-frame had been laid down.
A Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2016, drafted by Ministry of Women and Child Development, aims to create a strong legal, economic and social environment against trafficking.
The draft bill envisages creation of a fund for rehabilitation of victims of trafficking. The proposed bill seeks to establish special courts in each district of the country and special prosecutors to fast-track the trials and increase prosecution.
The draft bill is currently awaiting cabinet approval, after which it will be tabled in parliament and referred to a select committee before being taken up for debate and passing. This process could take up to a year, if not more.
Satyarthi said the BBA is hoping for a stringent and comprehensive law that includes severe and time-bound punishment for offenders and detailed rehabilitation measures for survivors.
Asked how the idea for the yatra was born, the he said it was not his first and that it was a “time-tested strategy” — and he went a quarter century down memory lane.
“The first major yatra was organised from Bihar to Delhi in 1993 to raise the issue of child labour. It was not a big issue back then and people thought it was a part of life,” the Nobel laureate said.
In 1995, he organised another yatra for the same cause along the length of India, from Kanyakumari to Delhi, in over two months.
After the yatra, the government amended the law to broaden activities which were considered as child labour and it was a big success, he said.
“But the major yatra was the ‘Siksha Yatra’ in 2001 from Kanyakumari to Delhi to make education a fundamental right which needed an amendment of the constitution. This required two-thirds majority in parliament and we were able to achieve it,” he said.
“I believe in the power of the ordinary citizen more than any political party as he’s not doing it for himself, but for the society and it’s pure,” he said.
Satyarthi was also part of “Global March Against Child Labour” in which the heads of 71 countries took part in different legs of the campaign.
He said the current yatra took a year to plan.
“The core team travelling would be around 150-strong and each day they will walk around 10 to 15 km; at least 10,000 people are expected to join us,” he said.
Satyarthi said that he will address three mass meetings a day, and there will also be smaller meetings.
He said that groups would be formed in schools and colleges during the course of the yatra and they would then fight against child trafficking and sexual abuse.
Asked about the problems he faced to organise the yatra across 22 state, traversing 11,000 km, he said with a smile: “The problem is positive. People are actually competing among themselves to host us and the response is overwhelming.”
(Nikhil Babu can be contacted at nikhil.b@ians.in)
—IANS
