The man with the humane touch: Ek Mulakat with Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi and National Film Award Recipient Yatindra Mishra

15^th May 2020, Kolkata: Prabha Khaitan Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to the socio-cultural welfare and humanitarian cause has through a virtual session of their initiative Ek Mulakat brought together Nobel Laureate Shri Kailash Satyarthi and renowned poet & National Film Award recipient Shri Yatindra Mishra to discuss about Shri Satyarthi’s contribution towards society and humanity at large. The Prabha Foundation is devoted towards the promotion of performing arts, culture and literature, and collaborates with caregivers, committed individuals and like-minded institutions to implement cultural, educational, literary and social welfare projects in India. Ek Mulakat provides a platform to eminent personalities from the various segments of the society to share their stories.

Speaking on the virtual session, Ms Manisha Jain, Communications & Branding Chief, Prabha Khaitan Foundation, added, “Prabha Khaitan Foundation has always been an advocate of art, culture and literature.  With the lockdown keeping us all at home, we have endeavoured to bring together the greatest minds from across the country through our virtual sessions, to keep our fellow countrymen inspired during these difficult times. We hope that Shri Satyarthi ji’s life and his body of work encourage all our viewers to do good for the society, especially now when we must all stand united to fight against a common enemy, COVID-19. We have many more such enlightening sessions lined up for the future. Be it physically or virtually, Prabha Khaitan Foundation is committed to engage communities in promoting culture and knowledge.”

Speaking during the session, Shri Kailash Satyarthi, stated, “The current situation that we are going through can only be called a crisis of civilization. Hearing all the sad news around us, it seems, we have harmed nature and it is taking its due revenge. Like I always say, globalization of compassion is also connected with the supply chain of gratitude. Corona should be seen as an endless sea of Karuna for human beings, where economy is built on the platform of the goodness of soul. It is essential that we must also have Karuna in us during these trying times. It should not be seen from any communal point of view, Karuna makes you courageous, builds fortitude to fight inner fears and social evils.”

He further added, “This situation may continue for the next 4 to 5 years. It is the Government’s first priority to save lives. Humanity needs to be saved from this crisis globally. The most deprived and marginalised must be kept in mind. Moreover, recent statistics raises serious questions on the safety of children in this country, where 4 children are raped, and 8 children went missing every hour. Since the beginning of lockdown, several studies show there has been significant increase in consumption of child pornography.”

During the course of the virtual EK Mulakat session organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation, Shri Kailash Satyarthi  announced, “Children are my biggest inspiration, hence,  I, along with other global leaders and Nobel laureates have taken the responsibility to ensure that a certain percentage of the COVID 19 relief fund announced by the G20 forum must go to the lowest strata and marginalised sections of the society towards education, health, medicine and other needs of their children. We are already in talks with the G20 leaders and the UNO regarding this.”

Throughout the hour-long engaging session where Shri Kailash Satyarthi spoke on his life – he emphasized on how his journey as a child rights activist started and took shape, his experience of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, his favourite book, actress, politician, how he draws inspiration from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda and even recited the very first poem he had ever written which is dedicated to his wife. Moreover, he also highlighted the current situation of the global pandemic and how it aches him to witness such depressing circumstances. Contemplating on the sad demise of the few migrant labourers who died accidentally while sleeping on the railway tracks, he also recited a new poem on the same theme which he had written. Shri Satyarthi is an internationally acclaimed child rights activist who has been a tireless advocate of children’s rights for four decades now. His interventions are spread across over 140 countries in the world in an endeavour to protect children from slavery, trafficking, forced labour, sexual abuse and all forms of violence. He has been instrumental in bringing the issues of children in the global and national development agendas besides leading worldwide movements against child exploitation and upholding the rights of children for peace, safety, health, well-being and education. His unrelenting efforts for restoring the rights of the most marginalized and exploited children in the world won him the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 2014.

Renowned poet and cinema scholar, Shri Yatindra Mishra, added, “This session was a memorable experience for me. To have the opportunity to interact with such a great yet humble personality like Shri Kailash Satyarthi was extremely enriching for one’s mind and humanity at large. I would like to congratulate Prabha Khaitan Foundation for this amazing initiative they have taken. I am confident that many of the viewers will draw motivation from the session and work towards the benefit of the society.”

The Foundation’s vision to promote and recognise talent from different walks of life has led them to arrange immaculately curated literary sessions in about 30 cities across the country. Encouraged by the response in India, the Foundation has also forayed into the global arena with a bouquet of sessions. They have hosted some of the greatest stalwarts from the world of words, even as they are focused on creating a platform for aspiring talent. Each session carried a different flavour and spread a different essence. Previously, an array of distinguished and influential personalities has been a part of Ek Mulakat sessions such as Dr Shashi Tharoor, Javed Akhtar , Ashish Vidyarthi, Dr Sonal Mansingh, Dia Mirza, Usha Uthup, Nandita Das, Baroness Sandip Verma, Bittu Sahgal, Sudarshan Pattanaik and many more.

About Prabha Khaitan Foundation: Prabha Khaitan Foundation is dedicated to the socio-cultural welfare and humanitarian cause. It is a non-profit trust founded by Late Dr. Prabha Khaitan. Based in Kolkata, the Foundation promotes performing arts, culture and literature, and collaborates with caregivers, committed individuals and like-minded institutions to implement cultural, educational, literary and social welfare projects in India. The Foundation supports the UNESCO view that cultural development has the potential to be an alternative way of promoting sustainable development in poor rural communities, especially in the third-world countries. Based in Kolkata, for them culture stands for language, music, literature, visual arts, dance, drama, oral traditions, and traditional practices. The objective of the foundation is to create an enabling structure and promote networking so that communities engage with each other to work towards building positive self-esteem, inspire creativity and pro- mote culture and knowledge.