Children face increasing dangers worldwide and need to be prioritised, says Nobel laureate Satyarthi

Record ID: 76524

  • Title: Children face increasing dangers worldwide and need to be prioritised, says Nobel laureate Satyarthi
  • Date: 9th December 2016
  • Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 8, 2016) (REUTERS) CHILDREN STANDING AND PLAYING ON STREET IN A SLUM CLUSTER GROUP OF YOUNG BOYS STANDING, TALKING VARIOUS OF YOUNG CHILDREN STANDING, PLAYING NEXT TO RICKSHAW CHILD CRAWLING OVER ROAD NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 7, 2016) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF NOBEL LAUREATE KAILASH SATYARTHI'S CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION FOUNDATION'S LOGO ON GLASS DOOR
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2016 07:57
  • Keywords: India activist children rights human rights child rights Nobel Kailash Satyarthi radicalisation trafficking slavery education conflict refugee
  • Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
  • City: NEW DELHI, INDIA
  • Country: India
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015C5VRYD
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Indian child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has warned that global conflicts have caused the dangers faced by children around the world to multiply, as he gears up for a two-day children's rights summit in New Delhi.
    Satyarthi, who won the 2014 Nobel peace prize along with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, is bringing together over two dozen fellow laureates along with leaders and public figures for the Laureates and Leaders For Children 2016 summit starting on Saturday (December 10).
    The participants, including the Dalai Lama and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, are expected to collectively look for solutions to various problems afflicting children, said Satyarthi whose charity Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) is credited with rescuing more than 80,000 enslaved children.
    "We want to build the strongest possible moral platform for the cause of most neglected, most marginalized children in the world," he told Reuters.
    "Despite all the progress we are making, there is a serious deficit in morality," he added, saying promises and pledges by governments, politicians and authorities were not being fulfilled for children.
    Adding to that, rising conflicts around the world are now increasing the risks children already face, he said, as children flee overseas as refugees, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking, crime, prostitution and radicalisation.
    "The danger is multiple now," he said. "If we don't prioritise our children and give them good quality education, they could be misused."
    South Asia, with India at its centre, is one of the fastest-growing regions for human trafficking in the world.
    Gangs sell thousands of victims into bonded labour every year or hire them out to exploitative bosses as domestic servants, or sectors such as farming and manufacturing. Many women and girls are sold into brothels.
    India alone is home to 40 percent of the world's estimated 45.8 million slaves, according to a 2016 global slavery index published by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.
    Activists say although the government's response to human trafficking has improved in recent years, justice and support still eludes many victims, especially children.
    In a Delhi slum, where more than half the children don't go to school because their migrant labourer parents do not have bonafide identity cards, education is still a distant dream.
    Their parents see school enrolment as a ticket for their children to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
    "We also want to send our children to school so that they study and break away from this life, so that they progress and have a better life," said Ghanshyam Mandal Bhagat, a rickshaw puller originally from the eastern state of Bihar.
    "If they will go to school, they will become big people and then they won't have to do menial house jobs like me," added Phoolana Devi, a housemaid.
    A 2015 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) put the number of child workers in India ages 5 to 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally.
    More than half of India's child workers are employed in agriculture and more than a quarter in manufacturing - embroidering clothes, weaving carpets or making match sticks. Children also work in restaurants, shops and hotels and as domestic workers.
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