Bachpan Bachao Andolan > About Us

About Us

Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) is a child rights movement founded and spearheaded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi in 1980. The core activities of BBA are run and managed through the registered society “Association for Voluntary Action” (AVA). Ever since its inception, it has been waging a relentless war against all forms of violation of child rights, notably child labour, trafficking and slavery. 

BBA works to prevent exploitation, ensures legal help and provides support to victims of trafficking through rescue and rehabilitation. It also focuses on creating and promoting an accountability framework for law enforcement and other child protection agencies and safeguarding the interests of children through child-friendly policies and processes. Over the last four decades, BBA has protected and rehabilitated over 1,10,000 children.

Mission

We identify, release, rehabilitate and educate children in servitude through prevention, direct intervention, coalition-building, mass mobilisation and legal action to create a child-friendly society.

Legacy

Our efforts are dedicated to our martyrs Adarsh Kishore, Dhoom Das and Kalu Kumar who laid down their lives and paved the way for the freedom of enslaved and trafficked children.

Milestone

Vision

BBA seeks to create a child-friendly world where all children are free from exploitation and abuse.

Values

Justice, Courage, Compassion, Integrity and Freedom.

Our partners

UN India
Google
Brot
IDBI Bank
Kids Rights
Capgemini
Children's Investment

Our Founder

Kailash Satyarthi
Mr. Kailash Satyarthi is one of the tallest leaders and the loudest voice in the global fight against exploitation of children. Not caring much about the life-threatening attacks that he has survived, Mr Satyarthi has personally rescued tens of thousands of children from the scourge of slavery. His fearlessness and unrelenting policy advocacy efforts towards elimination of violence against children have resulted in path-breaking legislations globally.
He left a lucrative career as an electrical engineer and started Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) to rescue children and their families from the shackles of slavery, paving the way for their reintegration into mainstream society with the help of state actors under India’s legal policy framework. Through his sustained policy advocacy efforts in India, Mr. Satyarthi played a pivotal role in mobilising support and ensuring the passage of the Child Labour Act in 1986, followed by its amendment in 2016. Under the aegis of Mr. Satyarthi, Bachpan Bachao Andolan has rescued over 90,000 children from the scourge of bondage, trafficking and exploitative labour over the last four decades.
Letter to Satyarthi

Mr. Kailash Satyarthi in the News

News August 4, 2020

Statement of Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on the occasion of Universal Ratificat...

News January 8, 2020

Nobel Peace Laureate confers degrees upon nurses

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Dhoomdas laid down his life in the line of duty when he was mercilessly beaten to death by stone quarry mafia in Faridabad (near Delhi) in 1984 at the age of 25. A victim of trafficking himself, he was a tall leader of Satyarthi Movement whose invaluable contribution towards elimination of slavery and exploitation and organizing the workers in stone quarries is inscribed in golden letters. Dhoomdas motivated his colleagues when he was alive and shall continue to inspire all members of the movement forever!

“That day while carrying Dhoomdas’ body though I did not feel any weight on my shoulders, but till date I am carrying the burden of his death.” – Mr. Kailash Satyarthi.

Adarsh Kishore was a sharp and self-motivated leader of the Satyarthi Movement – a revolutionist in his own right. Though small built, his grit for restoring justice for the workers and children trafficked by stone quarry mafias was indomitable. In 1985, when the mafia could not find any way to tame Adarsh Kishore, they as cowards gunned him down in the dead of the night while he was fast asleep on the terrace. Adarsh was 30 when he was assassinated. His supreme sacrifice reinvigorated the strong resolve of one and all across the movement that ‘no obstacle can stop us from making a child friendly society, child friendly India and child friendly world.’

Our firebrand activist Kalu Kumar was trafficked from Bihar to the carpet manufacturing belt of Allahabad when he was all of six. He was rescued by Bachpan Bachao Andolan at the age of 10. A bright student that Kalu was, he covered up the lost ground very quickly and grew up to become a leader fighting for the rights of other child slaves at Bal Ashram. In 2000, looking into the eyes of the then President of the US, Bill Clinton, he asked, “For ending child labour is it necessary to be the President of America? Without being on that pedestal can’t you help children like us?” The conviction in his questions moved the US administration to expand manifold American Aid to the poor countries. He gave up a job in a multinational company to work as a grassroots activist in Satyarthi Movement. In October 2011, when Kalu was in Koderma travelling for Campaign on Wheels (Mukti Caravan), spreading awareness in the village, a snake bit him cutting short his bright, energetic, and goal oriented life.

He would often say, “Till child labour is not eliminated, I will never leave Bhaai Saahab alone, even if I have to give my own life.” Kalu truly lived up to that promise. In fact, he is still living up to it every single day. He is inseparably attached with thousands of volunteers and activists of the Satyarthi Movement and shines the light of honesty, sincerity and integrity in their thoughts and actions.

“To be honest, I still feel that one day Kalu, like his usual self, would enter my room without knocking. With an innocent smile beaming his teeth he will touch my feet and shall say, “Look Bhaai Saahab, your Kalu has arrived." -- Kailash Satyarthi