I work in 144 countries. I work in Africa with equal passion, in Latin America with equal passion. I’ve worked in Pakistan with equal passion. So it is a global fight. But I’m proud that India is where this fight began and it began through me. Then, it spread to other countries. We are born in the land of the Mahatma where solutions are made with peace and non-violence. I’ve been working 100% through non-violent means. I strongly believe in the principles of peace in all my fight.

Caste, religion, the political system, the economic system — all are helping the bonded labor owners … I believe in Gandhi’s philosophy of the last man, that is, the bonded laborer is the last man in Indian society, that we are here to liberate the last man.

We are going to organise End Child Slavery Week from 19th November to 25th November, and that would be an annual event.

We work with broken families and broken people who’ve lost hope and are helpless.

My mother saw me being attacked. She cried when I left engineering for this cause. She understood my fight, encouraged me. I remember all those who were with me in this struggle, including two colleagues who were killed. Whenever I free children from slavery and take them back to their mothers, the tears of happiness in their eyes are like blessings of God. When I see the faces of liberated children, I find their smile of freedom divine and it gives me divine strength. I never feel I’m liberating them, rather it feels like they’re giving me freedom.

It [Nobel Peace Prize] is a great recognition and honour for millions of children in the world. I hope many more people will join the fight against child slavery. This isn’t just about India. It’s a global phenomenon. We’ll work for this globally. I’ve been working in 147 countries and my responsibility is with all the world’s children.

If I was not fighting against child labor, I don’t know what else I could do. It was always in my heart, I could not live without that.

It was a passion from my childhood to work for children, I carried it forward. I have been very strongly advocating that poverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labour. It perpetuates poverty. If children are deprived of education, they remain poor.

People often relate childish behaviour to stupidity or foolishness. This needs to change. I want to level the playing field where I can learn from children. I can learn transparency from children. They’re innocent and straightforward.

You have given the great honour … 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.

First of all, everyone must acknowledge and feel that child slavery still exists in the world, in its ugliest face and form.

I hope that youngsters and civil society organizations and every Indian will feel proud. It is a noble cause to work for the rights of children.

We work against a social evil. If this evil isn’t reacting it means we aren’t a threat.

If they cry for their parents, they are beaten severely, sometimes hanged upside down from trees and even branded or burned with cigarettes.

I was personally concerned and involved in child rights-related activities right from my childhood.

I dream for a world which is free of child labour, a world in which every child goes to school. A world in which every child gets his rights.

More than 30 years ago, when I had embarked upon the fight against child labour, it was not even considered an issue worth any discussion. It was accepted as a way of life in India, much like it was in other countries. Today, no country or business or society can throw this issue away.

Today it is time for every child to have a right to life, right to freedom, right to health, right to education, safety, the right to dignity, right to equality, and right to peace.

I have come here only to share the voices and dreams of our children – because they are all our children.

From my own experience, I want to say that you should follow your heart, and the mind will follow you. Believe in yourself, and you will create miracles.

We as the governments, workers, employers and civil society must declare a war on child labour. This war cannot be won without strong, committed, coherent, and well-resourced worldwide movement. Equally needed is a genuine and active coordination between intergovernmental agencies at the highest level.

Elimination of child labour and access to education are like two sides of one coin. One cannot be achieved without the other.

The first ‘D’ is to dream: dream big – not for yourself, but for the country and for the world. The second ‘D’ is to discover: discover your full potential and the opportunities that surround you; and the third ‘D’ is to do. ‘Do’ means to act on your dreams and make best use of the opportunities you have discovered.

The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The faces of young people are the faces of our past, our present and our future. No segment in the society can match with the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of the young people.

We still have a soft approach on the perpetrators of crimes like worst forms of child labour.

World’s children cannot wait any longer. While international community debates and issues recommendations, statements and fine speeches, world’s children – marginalised, socially excluded, poor and vulnerable – continue to suffer.

At about an age when most children start full time schooling, hundreds of thousands of their contemporaries start a lifetime of drudgery in factories and fields, working 12-16 hours daily.

The fight against child slavery is the fight against traditional mindset, policy deficit, and lack of accountability and urgency for children across the globe.

For me, peace is a fundamental human right of every child; it is inevitable and divine.

I never go to temples, but when I see a child, I see God in them.

Denial of childhood and denial of freedom are the biggest sins which humankind has been committing and perpetuating for ages.

Let us unite the world through the compassion for our children.

Each time I free a child, I feel it is something closer to God.

There is a triangular relationship between poverty, child labour and illiteracy who have a cause and consequence relationship. We will have to break this vicious circle.

I am positive that I would see the end of child labour around the world in my lifetime, as the poorest of the poor have realised that education is a tool that can empower them.

Economic growth and human development need to go hand in hand. Human values need to be advocated vigorously.

Learning from the experiences of our ancestors, let us together create knowledge for all that benefits all.

Today, in every wave of every ocean, I see our children playing and dancing. Today, in every plant, tree, and mountain, I see our children growing in freedom.

Let us democratise knowledge. Let us universalise justice. Together, let us globalise compassion!

As the anti-slavery community, we must together ensure that this attention is transferred into concrete action and results.

If you keep on buying things made by child slaves in such conditions, you are equally responsible for the perpetration of slavery.

I call for a march from exploitation to education, from poverty to shared prosperity, a march from slavery to liberty, and a march from violence to peace.

Today, I see thousands of Mahatma Gandhis, Martin Luther Kings, and Nelson Mandelas marching forward and calling on us. The boys and girls have joined. I have joined in. We ask you to join, too.

I have been very strongly advocating that poverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labour. It perpetuates poverty. If children are deprived of education, they remain poor.

Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.

I am representing here – the sound of silence. The cry of innocence. And, the face of invisibility. I represent millions of those children who are left behind, and that’s why I have kept an empty chair here as a reminder.

The biggest challenge or biggest crisis knocking on the doors of humankind is fear and intolerance.

I am thankful to the Nobel committee for recognising the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age.

During the past few years North East India has emerged as one of the biggest destinations for child trafficking.

I think of it all as a test. This is a moral examination that one has to pass… to stand up against such social evils.

We talk of globalization, and how much money is needed for the education of children in the world, their liberation and rehabilitation just $9 billion which is four days of military expense. Just four days. Nine billion dollars is nothing. But what Americans spent on ice cream just 20 percent of this. One fifth of what you spend on ice creams could bring the children out of the clutches of their masters and put them to school.

I am really honoured but if the prize had gone to Mahatma Gandhi before me I would have been more honoured.

Equity is compromised due to the privatisation of education. Education has become a commodity. Those who can afford to buy it, buy it, and those who can sell it make money out of it.

My philosophy is that I am a friend of the children. I don’t think anyone should see them as pitiable subjects or charity. That is old people’s rhetoric. People often relate childish behaviour to stupidity or foolishness. This mindset needs to change. I want to level the playing field where I can learn from the children. Something I can learn from children is transparency. They are innocent, straightforward, and have no biases. I relate children to simplicity and I think that my friendship with children has a much deeper meaning than others.

We adults, our policies, our ways of governance, are responsible for poverty, not the children.

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.

Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems.

For centuries, we were taught that anger is bad. Our parents, teachers, priests, everyone taught us how to control and suppress our anger. But I ask: why can’t we convert our anger for the larger good of society?

A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime.

India has hundreds of problems and millions of solutions.

I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global spending on armies is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms.

If not now, then when? If not you, then who? If we are able to answer these fundamental questions, then perhaps we can wipe away the blot of human slavery.

I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be stronger than the quest for freedom.

Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child’s eye – it is very beautiful.

There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children.

The single aim of my life is that every child is:
free to be a child,
free to grow and develop,
free to eat, sleep, see daylight,
free to laugh and cry,
free to play,
free to learn, free to go to school, and above all, free to dream.