INDIAN NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Recognition of child rights: Kailash Satyarthi on winning Nobel Peace prize

Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai have won Nobel peace prize 2014, beating Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, the Pope and Vladimir Putin.

Who is Malala Yousafzai?

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani teenager who works as an activist promoting education of girls in Swat District of Pakistan's troubled northwestern  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She championed the rights of young girls, who were deprived of education, due to Taliban's dictate against education of girls.

She shot to fame after she wrote a blog for the BBC writing about her life under Taliban rule and her view on girls education in the Swat Valley.

Soon after, she became famous and subject of various documentaries and interviews. She was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by social activist Desmond Tutu.

Her rise in prominence resulted in Taliban releasing threats to kill her and her father.

Despite the threats, she continued working for the education of girls in the tribal region.

On the afternoon of 9 October 2012, Malala was shot in the head. One bullet hit the left side of Malala's forehead, traveled under her skin the length of her face and then into her shoulder.

The incident sparked world wide protest and expression of outrage. She was flown in to England for  her treatment to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she recovered from her injuries. After the attack, the entire world rallied behind her and her cause.

In July 2013, she addressed the United Nations on the need to provide education to children. In April, 2013, she featured in the list of 100 most influential people.

She wrote an  auto-biography 'I am Malala', which was a world wide best-seller.

In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which she shared with Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi.

Who is Kailash Satyarthi?

Kailash Satyarthi, born January 11, 1954, lives in New Delhi. He  has been active in the movement against child labour since the 1990s and has freed over 80,000 children from various forms of servitude and helped in successful rehabilitation through his organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Satyarthi has argued that child labour perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and population growth.

Satyarthi has been involved with the Global March Against Child Labor and its international advocacy body, the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE) - a global coalition of NGOs, teachers and trades unionists, and also the Global Campaign for Education.

Satyarthi is also credited with establishing Goodweave as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without the use of child-labour in South Asia.

He has helped enactment and adoption of national and international legislations, treaties and conventions as well as the constitutional amendment on child labour and education.

The engineer-turned-activist

Kailash, who was born in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, has a degree in electrical engineering and a post-graduate diploma in high-voltage engineering.

After teaching engineering in a college in Bhopal for a few years, Kailash decided to work for social change following his experiences as a student who saw the lot of less priovilegded from close quarters. Intially, he started a book bank for poor students who could not afford textbooks which got huge support.

Today, his family includes his wife, daughter, son and a daughter in-law colleagues and a number of of children that his organisation has rescued.

The problem and his fight

Child labour makes up one quarter of the unskilled labour force in the organised and unorganised sectors of South Asia. According to reports, of India's 140 million working children, 55 million are in servitude and 10 million are bonded slaves to their employers.

Kailash's work is based on three major strategic thrusts - he organises raids to identify and free bonded children; tries rehabilitate them by providing vocational training and and works with the media and other groups to build national and international consumer resistance.