The Fight to End Child Labour: Courage, Rescue & Human Rights

In this extraordinary episode of Tomorrow Today, host Shekhar Natarajan sits down with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, one of the world’s most respected human rights activists and a lifelong champion of children’s rights. For decades, Kailash Satyarthi has dedicated his life to rescuing children from child labour, slavery, trafficking, bonded labour, and exploitation. His journey began with a simple but life changing moment: as a child, he witnessed a young boy polishing shoes outside his school while other children were inside learning. In this deeply moving conversation, Satyarthi takes us through the experiences that shaped his extraordinary path. He recalls creating a community book bank at just 11 years old, the early lessons in compassion and social responsibility that influenced him, and the bold decision to leave behind a successful engineering career to fight for children whose voices were rarely heard. He speaks candidly about the risks involved in confronting systems of exploitation, including putting his own life on the line to rescue children trapped in bonded labour and trafficking. His story reveals the courage, persistence, and unwavering conviction required to challenge injustice and create meaningful social change. Shekhar and Kailash explore the deeper questions of courage, compassion, leadership, education, purpose, resilience, and human responsibility. What makes someone choose service over comfort? How can one individual create a movement capable of changing laws and influencing millions of lives? And what can each of us do to build a world where every child has the freedom to learn, grow, and dream? Kailash Satyarthi has helped rescue more than 138,000 children and has spent decades building movements and influencing global action against child labour. His lifelong commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of children earned him the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, shared with Malala Yousafzai. His journey is ultimately a reminder that transformative change does not always begin with power, wealth, or influence. Sometimes, it begins with one person refusing to look away.