Visitors to the Rashtrapati Bhavan will now be able to see the Nobel Peace Prize received by child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who dedicated the honour to the nation by presenting his medal to President Pranab Mukherjee here on Wednesday.
The medal was dedicated by Mr. Satyarthi to the President at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“He [Mr. Satyarthi] is doing very good job, which has been recognised by the international community, and in its recognition he was given the Noble Peace Prize. I thank him on behalf of the people of this country. I congratulate him,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
The medal, made of 18-carat gold and weighing 196 gram, will be kept at the Rashtrapati Bhavan museum.
Mr. Satyarthi and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai were on December 10 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering work on promoting child rights.
“I committed the medal to the country on Wednesday. All eyes of the world are on India. It should be our collective responsibility to see that children’s rights are protected,” Mr. Satyarthi said.
He said the present and future of all children living in the country should be protected.
“There is no Nobel medal in country today, as those who got it are not here or have left the country. Rabindranath Tagore’s medal was stolen. This Nobel medal is of the country…of all its people,” he said.
Mr. Satyarthi’s non-government organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan claims to have rescued over 83,000 children from bonded labour and slavery since its inception in 1980.
The President recalled how Dr. C.V. Raman had, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, too dedicated his award to the nation and seen the prize as recognition of the scientific talent of India, a Rashtrapati Bhavan release said.
Mr. Mukherjee said this was an unusual gesture because most former winners of the award kept the same in their respective institutions, including Tagore, whose medal was housed at Viswa Bharati at Santiniketan. He commended Mr. Satyarthi for the excellent work he was doing and urged him to continue doing so.
Mr. Satyarthi said he will not keep a single penny of the prize money. Both he and Malala share about $1.1 million in prize money.
“Neither I nor will my NGO keep the prize money. The entire amount will be utilised for the welfare of children in India and any other parts of the world,” the Nobel laureate said.
