At a time when India and Pakistan are engaged in a serious cross border firing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded an Indian, Kailash Satyarthi and a Pakistani, Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Prize for Peace. When the committee, through its press release, has said that the eminent personalities were given the Nobel Prize “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”, both India and Pakistan should read between the lines and should understand that the committee, and along with them the whole world, is calling for a peaceful settlement of all issues between the two nations. When the prize has been shared equally by Malala and Satyarthi, it will not be possible to see them separately. Their struggle has been along similar lines - for the right to education for all children.

Kailash Satyarthi is an engineer-turned-activist who has been in the forefront of the fight against Child Labour. He, along with his organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan, has brought the issue of child labour to the centre-stage with very many Gandhian style protests and demonstrations. He has been working tirelessly against the exploitation of children in the name of labour for financial gains. When he has been instrumental in saving many children from slave-labour conditions, he has also been on the forefront in fighting for legal and administrative reforms for eliminating child labour in the country and across the world. He has saved many children from the clutches of exploitation and has given them a new life though education and rehabilitation. Satyarthi is also a survivor of many appalling and life-threatening attacks while rescuing children from exploitative conditions.

Malala Yousafzai is a teenager of tremendous bravery and courage from Pakistan who has fought the Pak Taliban for her right to education. In the year 2012 she was shot on her head and neck by Taliban terrorists in her state of Swat in Pakistan when she was returning from her school. The young girl fought bravely for her life and she was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham in England where she was treated for her life-threatening injuries. Since then Malala has been campaigning for girls’ education including speaking in the United Nations for the convictions she hold. Young Malala has shown immense personal courage under very dangerous circumstances and has become a strong spokesperson for girls’ right to education. 

It is a matter of particular significance that the Nobel Committee “regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.” At a time when around the world there are many battles being fought on the lines of jingoistic nationalism and on petty communalism the statement made by the Nobel Committee assumes deep meanings. Nationality and religion don’t really matter when you are struggling against the ills of humanity – may it be child labour, poverty or ignorance. We should not take the statements made by the Nobel Committee as mere tokenism, but they should be considered as a call for a united struggle against extremism, child labour and all other social evils. 

In the mean time let’s express our deep respect and adulation to the awesome Indo-Pak duo of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai.