New Delhi: Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi today wondered why religious leaders who keep preaching on almost every matter forget to say anything on violence against the children.
“You will find religious leaders discussing almost everything on television, from spirituality to astrology, but they do not say a word on the violence that the children are subjected to in our society,” Kailash Satyarthi said.
The Nobel laureate was talking to media persons after returning from United Nations where he addressed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit last week.
Mr. Satyarthi expressed happiness over the fact that the SDGs set by the United Nations has included almost all clauses relevant to child rights aimed at ending slavery, trafficking, forced labour and violence.
Kailash Satyarthi announced that he plans to launch a world-wide programme to eliminate violence against children.
“It's matter of great concern that around 100 million children across the world are victims of different forms of abuse. Under this programme, millions of youth will raise their voice for children who are being exploited. We will also educate youth about various forms of violence including abuse, lack of education and lack of health,” he said.
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Mr Satyarthi also announced the plan to set up a policy research institute in India which will work in the field of child rights and ensure holistic development of child friendly policies, practices and institutional framework.
The institute to be set up under the aegis of Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation (KSCF) would also organize world class research to identify, document and disseminate best practices and innovations in ending violence against children.
The Nobel Prize winner pointed out that it was ironic that the world has 168 million child laborers while 200 million adults are sitting unemployed.
Mr Satyarthi said that he had met Narendra Modi for enacting a tough law against child labour and the Prime Minister completely agreed with him.
Satyarthi expressed the hope that Indian parliament will pass the new law on child labour as and when it is tabled in the parliament.
“The government has agreed, in principle, to all the suggestions and I hope that even opposition parties will extend full support for passing a tougher law against child labour,” Satyarthi said.
