Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai receive Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for child campaigns

Oslo: Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for refusing to quit school received their Nobel Peace Prizes on Wednesday after two days of celebration honouring their work for children's rights.

"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 here.

"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.

Satyarthi, who gave up his job as an electrical engineer to run an NGO for rescuing children from forced labour and trafficking, said: "I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global military expenditure is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms."

"I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be... stronger than the quest for freedom," said 60-year-old Satyarthi, who asked the audience to feel the child inside them and globalise compassion.

The audience included King Harald V of Norway and Pakistan's former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

"Let us inculcate and transform the individuals' compassion into a global movement. Let us globalise compassion. Not passive compassion, but transformative compassion that leads to justice, equality, and freedom," Satyarthi said after receiving the award here at ornete Oslo City Hall.

Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, he said, "If we are to teach real peace in this world... we shall have to begin with the children." 'I humbly add, let us unite the world through the compassion for our children.'

"I represent here the sound of silence. The cry of innocence. And, the face of invisibility. I have come here to share the voices and dreams of our children, our children, because they are all our children," he said, adding that the crime against children has no place in a civilised society. Satyarthi's NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) prides itself on liberating over 80,000 children from bonded labour in factories and workshops across India.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) there are about 168 million child labourers globally. There are roughly 60 million child labourers in India alone. 

Malala became by far the youngest laureate, widely praised for her global campaigning since she was shot in the head on her school bus in 2012. Some groups in Pakistan, however, have accused her of being a puppet of the West and violating the tenets of conservative Islam.

"I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not," said Malala, 17, better known by her first name, which is also the title of her book and the name of her foundation.

"It is the story of many girls," she said in Oslo's ornate city hall on the anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's death.

Although the focus was undoubtedly on Oslo on Wednesday, Nobel Prize winners in literature, chemistry, physics, medicine and economics were gathering in Stockholm, due to receive their prizes from the King of Sweden later in the day.

Satyarthi, who is credited with saving around 80,000 children from slave labour sometimes in violent confrontations, kept a modest profile in Oslo and even conceded to being overshadowed by Malala surrounded by admirers.

"I've lost two of my colleagues," Satyarthi said about his work. "Carrying the dead body of a colleague who is fighting for the protection of children is something I'll never forget, even as I sit here to receive the Nobel Peace Prize."

Arriving in Norway with friends and young activists from Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, Malala met thousands of children, walked the streets to greet supporters and will open an exhibit where her blood stained dress, worn when her school bus was attacked, was put on display.

"She's very brave and tough, fighting even after the Taliban shot her in the head," said Andrea, 12, who was among thousands of children hoping to greet Malala in downtown Oslo.

The award could also help the Norwegian Nobel Committee repair its reputation, damaged by controversial awards in recent years to the European Union and U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers," Malala said. "I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that."

They received the Nobel medal, which is 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold and weighs around 175 grams. They will share USD 1.1 million prize money.