PAKISTAN’S Malala Yousafzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize at a time when their armed forces were locked in a volatile spiral of attrition on the borders. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prestigious prize to “a Hindu and a Muslim” of two confrontational bordering countries for their efforts in championing children rights and facilitating education. Awarding the prize, the committee said that peaceful global development could only come if children and the young are respected, it navigates a strong message of reconciliation to fend off the jeopardy of future generations.
The win by Malala, who has become a global icon and a symbol of courage and of the rights of girls to education, was expected, even demanded by the public. In contrast, Kailash, a children’s rights and anti-slavery activist, is known mostly in the world of human rights defenders. The two are, above all, fighters against injustice. And while Malala’s young life has dazzled the world in a short time, Satyarthi, 60, has already spent decades working to combat the shocking reality that even today, millions of children are forced to work in slavery, often to pay off their parents’ debts, enduring exploitation and trafficking and being discriminated against for their castes.
Malala would find that millions of Indian girls of different religions, castes and regions face problems that are similar to the ones she confronted at home – a patriarchal resistance to their growth. Satyarthi’s Global March against Child Labor and the Global Campaign for Education have chapters throughout the world, with thousands of members working to influence and ultimately persuade governments, businesses and consumers to stop illegal labor practices. Their joint Nobel Peace Prize reminds us that in the great struggles unfolding today, the fight against extremism, the oppression and exploitation of women, the battle between competing ideologies, all of us can make their own choices.
Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala and Satyarthi have asked the leaders of their respective countries to have dialogue, to have talks about peace, to think about progress, to think about development rather than fighting with each other. The prize comes as a lovely irony, and it is so timely that it almost seems planned to herald a specific agenda of peace between the two countries.
Malala and Kailash, we congratulate you on behalf of the people of Bangladesh, hoping that the prize will encourage them to excel in their activities in improving the plight of millions of downtrodden and abused children in South Asia. Besides, the shared peace prize between the nationals of India and Pakistan will hopefully open the path of establishing permanent peace and tolerance in the region. If the countries can initiate a true effort of establishing peace, it will substantially abandon the race of armament and subsequently improve the life of millions in the subcontinent.
