Whether it was raising tribal consciousness on their land rights in the Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh or the cause of the Dalits, he was there. He spoke upagainst child labour in the carpet industry in the 1980s. At that time, some twolakh children were caught in the web of slavery. After more than 25 years of championing the case of the bonded child labor land rights and legal entitlements, the change is evident in the Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt.
That voice even echoed in the ganglands of Bihar and UP. In 1982, he set up CRED. More than 72,000 child laborers were educationally mainstreamed and a crop of ten thousand volunteers were raisedcrisscrossing the lines of oppression -- a path littered with threats, hostilities and sacrifice. The Indianstate placed him in various policy-making committees. International acclaimfollowed -- UNDP, ILO, UNICEF, World Bank all lined up at his door. Awards were not farbehind -- BREAD Role Model Award, Prayag Gaurav Samman, JanmitraSamman, Paryavaran Mitra Samman, the list goes on...
