Kailash Satyarthi has been a tireless advocate of children’s rights globally for more than four decades. Through his organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, he has directly rescued more than 100,000 children from child labour, slavery, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The Global March Against Child Labor, which he led, galvanised support in 103 countries resulting in the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, which in 2020, became the only universally ratified convention in the history of the ILO.

He is also the founding president of the Global Campaign for Education, an exemplar civil society movement working to end the global education crisis, and the founder of GoodWeave International, which raises consumer awareness and positive action in the carpet industry. He has been at the forefront of driving child related agendas into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which resulted in the UN Secretary General appointing him as an SDG Advocate in 2021.

In 2014, Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifetime of struggle against the exploitation of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation is ensuring an end to exploitation of children in India and around the world by addressing the inequality, injustice and discrimination that lie at the core of child labour. Satyarthi has dedicated his life to realising his vision of ending violence against children and building a world where every child is free to be a child.

In 2016, Satyarthi convened the first gathering of the Laureates and Leaders for Children platform, bringing together Nobel Prize laureates and leaders committed to working together to inspire the international community to globalise compassion for the world’s most vulnerable children.

Alongside former child labourers and students, he also launched the 100 Million campaign in 2016 to inspire and mobilise young people to stand up and act for their own rights and the rights of their peers. The campaign is a youth-led call to action for a world where all young people are free, safe and educated and works towards ending violence against children, eradication of child labour, and ensures education, breaking cycles of illiteracy and poverty for good.

A global thought leader, Satyarthi has been at the forefront of demanding social protection for vulnerable children living in African nations and other low income countries. For him, every minute matters, every child matters.