Children join global literacy campaign

New Delhi, Apr 24 : Hundreds of former child labourers and school children joined a global literacy campaign, walking down the streets of New Delhi on Wednesday, demanding compulsory and free education for all.

"Around 110 countries across the world including India are participating in this people's movement for compulsory education. We believe that around six-seven million children worldwide are participating in this campaign. The slogan for this campaign is 'quality education to all', in order to remove poverty and other difficulties from the society," said Kailash Satyarthi, President of the International Global Campaign for Education.

Children held a slate pencil while marching to the Parliament and raised slogans demanding parliamentarians to make a law for 'free mandatory primary education'.

"We want to give this message to the lawmakers that Parliament spends a lot of money in buying bombs, missiles and other weapons, so they should spend some on poor children as well, " said Ramesh, a child protester.

The march was part of the Global Action Week, organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), the world's largest civil society coalition on education.

Global Action Week is being celebrated across the world from April 21 and will conclude on April 27.

The children later assembled for an interactive session with Bollywood actress Mahima Chowdhury and director Tanuja Chandra along with other activists.

ANI