Corporates and humanitarians need to work together, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said at a corporate event in the city.
Starting the talk with a verse from the Rig Veda, which talks about inclusion and sustainability, Mr. Satyarthi said that these concepts were written hundreds of years ago. He went on to narrate an anecdote about children in Ghana being put to work to extract cocoa beans without knowing that the beans would be used for making chocolates.
Mr. Satyarthi also spoke about his work in Jharkhand, where around 400 villages are now declared ‘child-friendly’, completely free of child labour. His foundation took up the issue of children being made to work in mica mines after it was exposed in news reports. He set up Bal Panchayats, where children form panchayats and raise their issues with the local gram panchayats.
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Mr. Satyarthi said, “If I had to make an impact, I knew I had to convince the corporates in the area. I know that for the longest time, humanitarians and activists have considered the corporates as their enemies and the biggest exploiters. I had to go against these opinions and at least have a conversation. In Jharkhand, we now have the support of the government as well as the corporate sector.”