NEW DELHI — Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi said Friday his Nobel Peace Prize would help highlight the plight of children around the world, and invited fellow winner Malala Yousafzai to work with him. Speaking to journalists outside his office on the outskirts of New Delhi, Satyarthi said he had only heard of his win through the media.



The 60-year-old activist, who has a relatively low profile even in India, congratulated Malala, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban. “The two of us have to work together, I know her personally, let us join hands for that (peace),” he said in comments broadcast on Indian television.



“After receiving this award I feel that the people will give more attention to the cause of the children in the world.” Satyarthi heads the Global March Against Child Labor, a combination of some 2,000 social groups and union organizations in 140 countries.



He is credited with helping tens of thousands of children forced into slavery by businessmen, landowners and others to gain their freedom. Asked why he had become an activist, he replied that “somebody had to do it.”



“It was a passion from my childhood to work for children, I carried it forward,” he said. “I have been very strongly advocating that poverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labour. It perpetuates poverty. If children are deprived of education, they remain poor.”



Satyarthi, who is scheduled to meet India’s President Narendra Modi later Friday, also credited his country’s “alive” and “vibrant” democracy for the success of his campaign. “Something which was born in India has gone global and now we have a global movement against child labor,” he said.



And he said it was a “good gesture” to give this year’s prize to people from India and Pakistan, whose troubled relationship has led to three wars. — AFP