Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s campaign launched in Bangladesh

A campaign by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has been launched to support six million disadvantaged children in Bangladesh.

The journey began at a youth rally organised at Dhaka’s St Joseph School in coordination with Ganasakkharata Ovijan, also known as Campaign for Popular Education or CAMPE, on Sunday.

Satyarthi, the Indian child rights and education activist who won the 2014 Nobel peace prize with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, was visiting Dhaka as a keynote speaker to the IPU assembly.  

His ‘100 Million for 100 Million’ – a vision to engage advantaged youths in helping the disadvantaged – was launched in Delhi by President Pranab Mukherjee last year.  

“You have the power and that’s why after India we are launching the programme in no other country,” he said speaking to youths in Dhaka.

“It is not in the United States, it is not any country of Europe, it is my second home Bangladesh. You have already taken a pledge.”

Various youth organisations, school and college students, civil society bodies pledged to take part in Satyarthi’s programme, the Ganasakkharata Ovijan that campaigns for education said in a statement.

The programme saw its first official launch outside India on Sunday. Bangladesh was among ten countries that have adopted Satyarthi’s campaign. 

A large part of the world’s three billion youths, under the age of 25, does not have access to basic human rights, it said. More than a 100 million children work in risky environments, and among them, five million are modern-day slaves. Around 100 million children do not go to school.   

Conflicts in the last decade have claimed the lives of two million children.  As for women, data shows that one in five women are suffering some form of abuse, according to the statement.

“In Bangladesh, the campaign aims to ensure education and healthy lives for six million disadvantaged youths. It wants to ensure secure lives for youths from ethnic minority groups, young women and the disabled,” said the Ganasakkharata Ovijan.

Satyarthi, born in Vidisha of India’s Madhya Pradesh, trained to be an electrical engineer.

He had been a teacher in his locality, before leaving his job in 1980 to start Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an organisation credited for freeing thousands of children from slave-like conditions.

Before Satyarthi's speech, the audience of mostly young people raised their hands to pledge solidarity with the ‘100 Million for 100 Million’ campiagn.

Along with actor Monir Khan Simul, who moderated the ceremony, they pledged to eradicate child labour, as much as possible, and ensure education for all who need it. 

“Today is a very special day. Do you want to make history today? No power in the world can match the power of youth,” Satyarthi told his audience.  
 
“Bangladesh is my second home. It is not just because so many of my dear sisters and brothers stay here, but because Bangladesh has the power to lead the world.”