“I have taken Nepal as the second workplace since I raised my voice against child slavery and injustice in India,” the Nobel laureate told the Post on Monday. He said he would visit Nepal in December third week to express gratitude to the Nepali people. “It’s my primary duty to thank the Nepali people as they share the credit for my award,” he said.

Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with 17-year-old Pakistani student and education activist Malala Yousafzai. The Norwegian Nobel Committee conferred them for their struggle against child slavery, exploitative child labour and for the right of all children to education.

Satyarthi, 60, has been campaigning for an end to child exploitation with his organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in India since 1980, giving up his career as an electrical engineer. His campaign crossed the border and made a mark in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“I knew there was a huge number of child labourers and children deprived of their rights in Nepal when I started the campaign in India,” Satyarthi told the Post at his office in Kalkaji before setting out for a meeting with Indian National Congress Chairperson Soniya Gandhi.

Satyarthi actively campaigned against child labour in carpet factories in Kathmandu while he worked with Rugmark Foundation, Nepal. He said he would not have reached the position had it not been for the help of the activists and awareness of social organisations in Nepal.

The Nobel laureate remembered former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and rights activists Padma Ratna Tuladhar and Gauri Pradhan, among others, for their support to his campaign.

Satyarthi’s campaign has helped rescue and rehabilitate more than 12,000 Nepali children working in Indian circuses, embroidery factories and households. He risked his life rescuing 14 Nepali children from a circus in Gonda, Lucknow, in 2004. The BBA has rescued and rehabilitated about 84,000 children since its establishment.

Satyarthi recalled his participation in Nepal’s democratic movement in 1990. “I was one of the Indians who staged a sit-in before the Nepali Embassy in Barakhamba and was sent to police custody.”