Honouring noble cause

In a world that is governed by adults, the default option is for children to be treated as works in progress who have to earn their entitlements. “You will not understand it, you are a child,” is the common refrain. But children are people too and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity that is reserved for the fully formed adults.

In recognising two child rights activists from two countries and religions, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has actually honored children all over. Given the fact that neither the 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi nor the 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai is recognised at the same level domestically adds to the poignancy of the honour. They worked against all odds in their home circumstances.

With the Taliban out to repress women, Malala's fight for the cause of children's education is not an ordinary struggle against societal pressures that work to deprive the girl child. It is actually an over-arching struggle against forces that consider human lives expendable in the quest to achieve their goals. These are forces that simply negate the independence of women. Similarly, Satyarthi first through his Bachpan Bachao Andolan and then the international campaign for eradicating child labour has been fighting entrenched powerful vested interests. In the political domain a lot of lip service is paid to the weaker sections. But though they are the weakest even in the most developed societies, children hardly get the same kind of attention. May be because they are not voters and thus are nobody's constituency. Interestingly, while honoring Satyarthi and Malala the jury has thought it fit to refer to their religion and country in the same breath.

Given the backdrop of hostile relations between India and Pakistan, this joint message of peace has a different connotation. To this message, Malala has thoughtfully added her teenage wish that the two Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi should grace the presentation ceremony. This could be an ice-breaker after the recent bout of escalating tensions. But the Indo-Pak message apart the Peace Nobel which is so controversial that at times it has invoked fierce criticism even to the point of demands being raised that it should be scrapped altogether this time has done a great job of bringing the rights of children into relief. We need to ensure a better world for children in accordance with Malala's objective that every child goes to school and for Satyarthi's cause that no child works as a labourer. It would be useful to remember that it was the politics of Nobel prize which ensured that Mahatma Gandhi did not get it during his lifetime or posthumously and now his ideals have been honoured through Satyarthi, Gandhi was the greatest apostle of freedom and his greatness did not need any endorsement or award but his power lies in the fact that those following in his footsteps have succeeded in getting the same recognition