Any initiative at reforming societies should begin with children, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said during his keynote at the Development Dialogue, organized by Deshpande Foundation recently, in Hubli. Edited excerpts
We can learn a lot from children. We can learn simplicity from them. We can learn transparency, learn to be very straight forward and not be diplomatic and artifi cial. We can learn how to learn, the quest for learning is always there in children.
We can learn forgiveness which is needed in the world today. We are making a very intolerant world. The biggest crisis I see in the coming years is intolerance. Let us learn from children to be simple, humble, to forgive, to be transparent.
If you have all these qualities it’s not because you are a successful businessman or highly educated, it is because there is a child inside you. Each one of us has a child inside us, that’s why we have all these qualities. While you are doing business, politics, anything, please listen to the child inside you.
Education is Tied to Justice
Education is key to empowerment, sustainability; it’s a right which is key to rest of the rights in life. Education is key to social justice, it’s key to so many things but the key is not given in the hands of all the people in the world. Every sixth person cannot read and write. We cannot think without education for any kind of economic justice. If children are denied education now, they are denied a future, denied all opportunities to be a partner in this economic world. Money spent on defence in one week is enough to educate all children, that is not a big deal if the governments have political will.
Any initiative at reforming societies should begin with children, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said during his keynote at the Development Dialogue, organized by Deshpande Foundation recently, in Hubli. Edited excerpts It has to be quality education; it’s not just reading and writing skills. More clear indicators, efforts, more investments in providing facilities to children so that education becomes inclusive, quality and equitable. Otherwise, we will create gaps in society.
Morality is Key to Survival of Humanity
Sometimes political leadership graphs go up and down. We change leaders and we think it will change. Sometimes the economic graphs go up and down but when the moral graph goes down in our life then it’s very very hard to bring it back. We need morality in our day to day life; we need it in our personal life, social life, in religious institutions. We have to work towards ethical and moral politics and business. It’s the key for survival for humanity. Today, the values are declining, we have to work hard to bring it back and that’s possible.
