Child leader Kinsu Kumar appeals for providing more opportunities for children by educating them at the United Nations

 

New York , sep 22. Former child labourer and now a social activist, Kinsu Kumar from Jaipur in Rajasthan appeals to world leaders at United Nations that “elimination of child labour and exploitation of children will only be possible by educating children to provide them with better and more opportunities”.

 He spoke as a child leader representative at United Nations “Transforming Education Summit” in New York. The Summit is a key initiative of Our Common Agenda launched by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in September 2021. On the sidelines of the Summit she also highlighted the importance of education at the 4th “Laureates and Leaders for Children” Summit. This is a brain-child of Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as a first of its kind platform bringing together Nobel Laureates and Global Leaders to build a sense of urgency, collective responsibility and a strong moral voice to galvanize political will for making this world peaceful where all children are healthy, safe and educated.

 

Nobel Peace Laureate LeymahGbowee, Former Swedish Prime Minister Stephen Lofven and Human Rights activist Kerry Kennedy were also present at the “Laureates and Leaders for Children” Summit.

 

Kinsu Kumar worked as a child labourer in a motor garage in Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, when he was only 6-years old. He was forced to drop out of school as his family could not afford his education and had to contribute to his family’s income by working as a child labourer. His life reached a turning point when his father came in contact with BachpanBachaoAndolan founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi during the organisation’s Education March in 2001.

 

After his rescue, Kinsu was brought to the Bal Ashram Trust, where he received non-formal education and then was enrolled in the nearby school in class 4. Bal Ashram Trust, located at Virat Nagar near Jaipur, is an innovative and transformative solution that addresses deep-rooted and complex societal problems to ensure child protection and create a child-friendly world. It was founded by Kailash Satyarthi in 1998 as a long term rehabilitation centre for children rescued from child labour, child slavery and child trafficking. The Trust has positively impacted 174, 724 lives till date.

 

After completing his higher education, he joined the Bal Ashram Trust as a program officer. Throughout his journey, Kinsu’s passion to protect child rights and the will power to stop child labour has never waned, making him a global ambassador for the rights of children. In this role, he has traveled all over the world, including the United States where he testified in an congressional hearing and the European Union where he spoke at a high level panel on education in the presence President of World Bank and Former Prime Minister of UK Gordon Brown and other global leaders. He has also participated in The Hague Global Child Labor Conference as a Representative of the more than 60 million children who are forced to work as child labourers to benefit their employers.

 

It is noteworthy that the recent appeal by Kailash Satyarthi for a nationwide campaign against child marriage will give a huge boost to our collective resolve to fight against the social evil and enable children like Kinsu Kumar not fall victims to various forms of child exploitation like child labour and child marriage.