Road To Nobel Wasn't That Easy For This Child Rights Activist

Union Law Ministry is organising the 17th National Webinar on Child Labour today as part of observing World Day Against Child Labour with the focus on empowering children to reshape their future by liberating them from the shackles of child labour. Many more such events are being held in the country to mark the occasion but here is an Indian who once stirred global conscience and made everyone talk about the largely ignored issue of child labour.

To put the issue on the global map, anti-child labour activist Kailash Satyarthi, now a Nobel Peace laureate, launched a Global March Against Child Labour from Manila in Philippines on 17th January 1998. He walked for around 80,000 km across 103 countries for over five months to culminate the march on 6th June 1998 at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

When 36 children, each of whom had once been a child labourer, from different parts of the world entered the corridors of the United Nations (UN) headquarters shouting slogans "Child labour, down, down", it was to be a watershed moment as it would change the ugly narrative of child labour globally.

This was at a time when there existed no international legal framework to prevent children from being pushed into labour, trafficking, prostitution and other dangerous occupations. The march had two basic demands: There should be an international law against child labour, and a day should be dedicated to the child labourers when the entire world should bring the issues, impact and policies regarding child labour to the fore.

The march was participated by over 1.5 crore people, many of whom were world leaders like Prime Ministers, Presidents, Kings and Queens, and led to an unprecedented pressure on the UN as well as the International Labour Organization (ILO). There was no ignoring the issue any more. The world had to sit up and look at the atrocities of child labour in their own eyes, and resolve to do something about it.

One of the children, Govinda Khanal, who had accompanied Satyarthi in the global march, reminisces the many trials and tribulations they faced during the long, historic walk. "We crossed so many nations. I don't even remember the names of all the countries we crossed then. We would walk hours shouting slogans, performing street plays. We would be tired and sometimes due to paucity of funds, we didn't even have enough food."

Khanal, who was once a child labourer at the Indo-Nepal border, says, "With me were around 35 other children from different countries. All of us were either victims of child labour or slavery. We knew what these words meant and this cruel knowledge gave us a new lease of energy every time we felt tired during the walk."

When the march reached Geneva, there was an important annual convention of the ILO taking place in the UN conference centre Palais Des Nations. Over 2,000 dignitaries, ministers and representatives from 150 nations were in Geneva attending the convention. But everything almost stood still when the corridors of the UN headquarters reverberated with the slogans and demands of these children.

For the first time in the history of the ILO, the gates were opened for children who were there to talk about child labour, child slavery, child prostitution and child trafficking, and literally show the world the mirror. Breaking its tradition, the ILO allowed Kailash Satyarthi, a civilian, along with two children to address the convention. This is where the appeal to formulate an international law against child labour and a special day to mark child labour were made by him.

That set the ball rolling and on 17th June 1999, the ILO Convention 182, concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was passed. The convention was also unanimously adopted and ratified by 181 countries. India too ratified the convention on 13th June 2017.

In yet another first, the Convention 182 became the most rapidly ratified convention by all the 187 members of the organization. The other demand, for a special day to mark child labour, was also met and June 12 was thus declared as the World Day against Child Labour in 2002.

This is how one Indian, who became the voice of millions of child labourers in various parts of the world, changed the way the world looked at and treated this evil practice. Despite a Nobel in hand, the road ahead is still long and tumultuous but the millions of children who had accepted their agony and struggles as their destiny can now breathe in hope that the world is listening even as their sobs are being silenced.