Kailash Satyarthi of India and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize for risking their lives to help protect children from slavery , extremism and forced labour at great risk to their own lives.The 17-year-old Malala, the youngest ever Nobel winner, and Satyarthi, 60, collected the award at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall in the Norwegian capital to a standing ovation. “Satyarthi and Yousafzai are precisely the people whom Alfred Nobel in his will calls `champions of peace',“ chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, said in his speech before awarding them the prestigious prize. “A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what the world needs: more unity .Fraternity between the nations,“ he added.
In his acceptance speech, Satyarthi, who gave up his job as an electrical engineer to run an NGO that works for rescuing children from forced labour and trafficking, said: “I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be... stronger than the quest for freedom.“ Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, he said, “If we are to teach real peace in this world... we shall have to begin with the children.“
Asking a packed hall in Oslo not to pity children deprived of education but to “stand up for their rights, raise their voice,“ Malala said: “It is time to take action... so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education“. Malala, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012, said, “I am also glad that we can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children's rights.“
Satyarthi also expressed his delight at being awarded alongside Malala, saying, “Many things are happening today and the best thing that happened is that a young and courageous Pakistani girl has met an Indian father and the Indian father met the Pakistani daughter.“
In a speech peppered with self-deprecating humour, Malala used the award ceremony to call not just for education but also for fairness and peace. “The so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don't. Why is it that countries which we call `strong' are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace?“ she said.“Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard?“ Malala, who described herself as the “first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers,“ triggered applause and also frequent outbursts of laughter during her speech.
Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan and Ayaan performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo. The trio spread the message of peace and harmony with a special `Raga For Peace' conceived for the occasion. The ceremony began with an opera performance by Norwegian pianist Edward Grieg and singer Hans Christian Andersen. It was followed by Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's performance with his troupe.
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