Kailash Satyarthi

Interview

Interview, December 2014

“When I was giving my Nobel Lecture I lost my manuscript”

Kailash Satyarthi shares som memorable moments from the Nobel Days in Oslo, Norway, when interviewed during his visit to the Nobel Foundation on 12 December 2014.

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Interview, October 2014

“In our lifetime we can end child labor”

Kailash Satyarthi was interviewed at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi, India at the inauguration of the Nobel Museum exhibit “Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World”, on 30 October 2014.

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“Learning is the birth right of everyone”

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Interview, October 2014

Telephone interview with Kailash Satyarthi following the announcement of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, 10 October 2014. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Nobel Media.

Kailash Satyarthi is very honoured to be awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize together with Malala Yosufzai. Hear an interview with him about his reaction and what the Peace Prize means for his cause. “Everyone must acknowledge and see that child slavery still exists in the world in its ugliest face and form. And this is crime against humanity, this is intolerable, this is unacceptable. And this must go.”

Transcript of the interview

[Kailash Satyarthi] Hello

[Adam Smith] Hello, Mr Satyarthi?

[KS] Speaking, hello.

[AS] Hello, my name is Adam Smith calling from the Nobel Prize website in Stockholm. Congratulations on the award of the Nobel Prize.

[KS] Thank you so much, thank you very, very much. You have given the great honour and the .. [unclear] .. to hundreds of millions of children in the world who are deprived of their childhood and health and education, and fundamental right to freedom. It is a great moment for all those children, and thank you very much for that.

[AS] Well, thank you.

[KS] It is also a great honour for every Indian citizen, and I am really, really thankful to all of you.

[AS] That’s very kind of you, thank you. What message do you hope that the Prize award will deliver to the world?

[KS] Well, I am quite hopeful and rather sure that this will help in giving bigger visibility and attention to the cause of children who are most neglected and most deprived. This will also inspire individuals, activists, governments, business houses, corporate to work hand in hand to fight this out. And I am quite hopeful about it, that the recognition of this issue will help in mobilising bigger support for the cause.

[AS] Marvellous. This will focus a lot of attention on your work. How can people around the world help you with your mission?

[KS] First of all, everyone must acknowledge and feel that child slavery still exists in the world, in its ugliest face and form. And this is an evil, which is crime against humanity, which is intolerable, which is unacceptable and which must go. That sense of recognition must be developed first of all. And secondly there is a need of higher amounts of political will. There is a need of higher amount of corporate engagement, and the engagement of the public towards it. So, everybody has a responsibility to save and protect the children on this planet.

[AS] Thank you. And I suppose there is End Child Slavery Week coming up in November so everybody can get…

[KS] Of course. Yes, we are going to organise End Child Slavery Week from 19th November to 25th November, and that would be an annual event which we would be organising every year on different aspects of child slavery, and this year we are demanding to the information community that the abolition of child slavery must be incorporated into the post-millennium development goal or the sustainable development goal. So that would be the emphasis of this year’s End Child Slavery Week.

[AS] Thank you very much indeed for speaking to us, and again our congratulations on the award of the Nobel Prize.

[KS] Thank you once again on behalf of all my organisations whom I work with, all the activists and all my fellow Indians.

[AS] Thank you.

[KS] Bye, bye

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MLA style: Kailash Satyarthi – Interview. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/satyarthi/interview/>

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