The Aachener International Peace Prize laureate, Kailash Satyarthi has made a courtesy call on the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Rt. Hon. Mike Aaron Oquaye, to inform and seek the Speaker’s support on his 100 million to 100 million project which he intends to launch in Ghana today on the 16th of March, 2018.

The project intends to awaken and empower a hundred (100) million young people to become modules of inspiration and role models for a hundred (100) million deprived young people who otherwise would have had their lives destroyed as a result of prevailing circumstances.

Welcoming him to the House, the Speaker Rt. Hon Mike Aaron Oquaye indicated that, Ghana cherishes the long lasting relationship that has existed between her and India, and hopes the visit will further strengthen the ties.

He made it known in the process that no country has developed without protectionist policy, and that Africa and for that matter must go on that tangent, if the country is to overcome all the social vices bedeviling us as people.

He said, the West developed their countries amidst serious protectionist policies, and India in itself is a classic example, adding that India adopted serious protectionist policies, a case that has helped her to develop and found its position in the world economic order.

He further asked “how does Africa also develop in view of the World Health Organization (WHO’s) stranglehold on our economies?”

He indicated that we must chart a new world paradigm.

Hon. Richard Quashigah, Member of Parliament for Keta Constituency and Deputy Ranking Member on Employment on behalf of the Minority, welcomed Mr. Satyarthy to Ghana and assured him of the support from the Minority in his impending event.

He indicated that, Ghana has chucked significant strides in fighting against crimes amongst children and pursued vigorous child protectionist policies over the period.

He agreed with Mr. Satyarthi that, the welfare of children should be of prime interest to every government.

The Member of Parliament for Okaikoi Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah on behalf of the Majority, also emphasized that the world powers must concentrate on eleminating the injustices within the world trade order.

Mr. Satyarthy on his part stated that, we cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if we do not prioritize issues affecting children, in an advice to governments to make the affairs of children their priority.

He further advised that countries as a matter of urgency need to break the vicious cycle of child labor and all social vices against children.

Born Kailash Sharma, on 11 January 1954, in the Vidisha district of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, he changed his surname to Satyarthi (meaning ‘seeker of truth’).

The name change followed an incident where he, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership in the Indian Independence Movement and his own town’s leaders speaking out against the Indian caste system, decided to organize a dinner for the upper caste residents with food cooked by low-caste, so called ‘untouchable’ people.

In 1980, he gave up his career as an engineer and became secretary general for the Bonded Labor Liberation Front; he also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) that year.

He has also been involved with the Global March Against Child Labor and its international advocacy body, the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE), which are worldwide coalitions of NGOs, teachers and trades unionists.

He has also served as the President of the Global Campaign for Education, from its inception in 1999 to 2011, having been one of its four founders alongside ActionAid, Oxfam and Education International.

He is a 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate and currently leads the Indian Children’s Rights Activists movement.

Story: Frederick E. Aggrey

 

Exclusively Newslinegh