Kailash Satyarthi (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian social reformer who campaigned against child labor in India and advocated the universal right to education.

Kailash Satyarthi and his team at Bachpan Bachao Andolan have liberated more than 1,30,000[4] children in India from child labour, slavery and trafficking.

The demands of the marchers, which included children and youth (particularly the survivors of trafficking for forced labor, exploitation, sexual abuse, illegal organ transplants, armed conflict, etc.)

He dropped his last name Sharma (implying that he is a Brahmin) and took Satyarthi (meaning one who longs for truth) after his marriage, due to the influence of the reformist Arya Samaj movement.

His father Ramprasad Sharma was a retired police head constable and his mother Chironjibai was an uneducated housewife with high morals.

He attended Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Vidisha, and completed an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering[14] at Samrat Ashok Technological Institute in Vidisha then affiliated to the University of Bhopal, (now Barkatullah University)[1][15][2] and a post-graduate degree in high-voltage engineering.

[16] In 1980, Satyarthi gave up his career as an electrical engineer and then founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement).

He established GoodWeave International (formerly known as Rugmark) as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without the use of child-labour in South Asia.

[24][25][26] In the late 1980s and early 1990s he focused its campaigns on raising consumer awareness on issues relating to the accountability of global corporations regarding socially responsible consumerism, trade and supply chains.

He has argued that it perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth, and other social problems,[28] his claims have been supported by several studies.

The campaign launched in Kanyakumari on 11 September 2017, and marched through seven routes covering 22 Indian states and Union Territories, and over 12,000 km.