Research a Societal Advancement Started or Advanced by One Person
Several individuals have made significant efforts and decisions that helped them to accomplish various missions in the development of the society. Different societal advancements observed on the planet today emerged as a result of the human effort that aimed at influencing human development in different social settings.
This essay will focus on Kailash Satyarthi as one of the individuals that played a significant role towards the development of the societal. Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian child rights activist that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Kailash Satyarthi started his childhood as a focused and a concerned person in Madhya Pradesh. He realized that most of the children brought up in the village were unable to acquire education and participated in activities that negatively affected their life.
Kailash Satyarthi’s life encountered several disturbances from the increased level of inequalities and several other sufferings exposed to children by the residents of the states like child labor. Therefore, Kailash Satyarthi decided to do something that would change the situation of the children in the country. Kailash Satyarthi advised his colleagues to provide learning materials to children that lived under a miserable form of life so that they could get a chance to acquire education.
He pursued a course in electrical engineer in a Bhopal college and proceeded for his higher diploma in high-voltage engineering. After the completion of his education, Kailash Satyarth started working in various institutions whereby he decided to assist the society made of children from poor families. In 1980, Kailash Satyarth worked in an institution whereby children were forcibly kept and made to operate in various sectors for the benefit of the institution. Kailash Satyarth decided to respond to this situation by taking action.
Child labor has been a common thing that deprives most children their childhood in India. The activity denies children their potential and dignity as well as causing harmful and challenges to the mental development of the children. It involves the inclusion of children in activities that mentally, physically, socially and morally affect their economic development and productivity. Child labor deprives children an opportunity to attend schools or exposing them into a combination of school attendance and participating in heavy work.
This condition remains a common phenomenon to the children brought up in families with a high level of poverty. Most of the children are separated from their families and exposed to severe hazards, bad working conditions and strenuous work.
Child labor has been a common problem in India. Most of the people rely on child labor because children are not strict, more subservient and accept work at low wages. Child labor remains a common problem in India because the country lacks a law that protects children from exploitation. Therefore, companies enjoy child exploitation because it causes no harm to the development of their organizations. Coping with the increased level of child labor in India posed a significant challenge to Kailash Satyarth. Whenever he tried to make an attempt at eliminating the increased rate of child labor, Kailash Satyarth experienced several challenges that drag behind his activities.
Plato’s outline plays an important role in revealing Kailash Satyarth’s role in societal advancement. Plato’s quote “the goal of education is to drag every man as far out of the cave as possible. Education should not aim at putting knowledge into the soul, but at turning the soul toward right desires” provides a reliable idea related to Kailash Satyarth’s contribution towards the development of the society. As a result, Kailash Satyarth started participating in activities that would eliminate the issue of child labor at a very early age. The idea tormented his mind during his teenage and started taking initiatives to help under-privileged children.
He kept on thinking about the various factors that make children of his age could not go to school and participate in activities that earn their living. Kailash Satyarth decided to examine the primary causes and effects of child labor in India. He found that the rate of child abuse in India is growing at a very high rate due to lack of a law that prohibits factory owners from child labor exploitation. Kailash Satyarth provided that child labor leads to illiteracy, poverty, population growth, unemployment and other social problems that affect the development of the societies. This discovery has been supported by various researchers that conducted studies on a different place in the country. The support increased the need for an intervention that would assist in eliminating the level child exploitation in India.
Kailash Satyarth adopted various strategies that helped him to address child labor as an important method of promoting societal advancement in India. The first strategy adopted by Kailash Satyarth towards eradicating child labor involved the creation of domestic and international consumer resistance to materials made by children in bonded labor.
The strategy aimed at creating awareness to the consumers on issues related to child labor used in most of the factories that produce goods to the consumers. He helped the consumers to understand adverse impacts of acquiring goods from institutions that use children as the primary producers and workers in various departments.
This strategy assisted in discouraging companies from using children in production. Kailash Satyarth worked towards the implementation of rehabilitation and vocational training programs as well as the provision of education programs that helped children from an impoverished background to acquire education and participate in activities that positively contributed to the development of their lives. Vocational and rehabilitation programs helped children from families living below the poverty line to acquire an education that made them productive not only for the benefit of their lives but also for the development of the entire society.
Another important quote is that “Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime”. Therefore, the development of both national and international legislations, treaties and conventions were another important contributions made by Kailash Satyarth towards the development of the society. He called for the development of a movement of child labor that made a link with the attainment of the “Education for All” initiative.
Kailash Satyarth is remembered as the founder of the Global March against Child Labor that operates as a national body that advocates for the abolishment of child labor in India. Other initiatives developed by Kailash Satyarth towards the abolishment of child labor include the International Center on Child Labor and Education, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). The primary objective of developing these agencies was to reduce the increased rate of child labor in India.
In addition, Kailash Satyarth organized for the development of the Global March against Child Labor that took effect in more than one hundred countries and affected more than ten thousand civil society organizations in the entire planet. His activities aimed at putting strong pressure on government agencies, manufacturers, and importers to eliminate illegal and unethical labor practices.
The agency creates a worldwide network of teachers, trade unions and the entire civil society to work together in the acquisition of the set development goals that of eliminating and preventing all the types of child labor.
It provides access by all children to good quality public education, free and meaningful education that makes them productive individuals in the society. Among the achievements made by Kailash Satyarth towards the elimination of child labor entails the development of the right to be free from economic mistreatment and their participation in any form of work that may be harmful to their physical, mental, spiritual or social development.
Kailash Satyarth has been recognized through the acquisition of both domestic and transnational awards. These awards include the Defender of Democracy Award (US) in 2009, Medal of the Italian Senate in 2007 and the Alfonso Comin International Award in 2008.
From the above discussion, one can conclude that Kailash Satyarth made a significant contribution towards societal development not only in India but also in several other countries that suffered similar problems related to child labor. He worked towards reveling the reality behind child abuse by exposing them to problems unpaid labor and other responsibilities within the society that affect their mental and psychological development.
He assisted in the reduction of child labor in India and several other countries by enabling children to acquire free education through the reduction of the challenges that children from poor background encounter in the acquisition of basic education. Despite the effort made by Kailash Satyarth in the reduction of child labor, it is time for all the people to think about the most important method of eliminating child labor. All the people should try a way that makes sure employers and government adopt a responsible process of eradicating child labor. Conditions like extreme poverty, lack of social security, the human need to acquire cheap goods should be the primary concerns of all the individuals that help in eliminating child labor.
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