NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 20, 2006: A 14-year-old Indian boy, Om Prakash, has been awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize for leading a campaign against child labor and child slavery. Om was forced to work as a farm laborer for three years. After he was rescued, Om set up a network that aims to give all children a birth certificate as a way of helping to protect them from exploitation. Om was awarded the $100,000 prize organized by a Netherlands-based group at a ceremony in The Hague. After he was rescued, Om campaigned for free education in his native Rajasthan. He then helped to set up a network of what are known as “child friendly villages.” “This is our right – that (adults) have to listen. This is children’s rights. And if they are not abiding with that right, we will work harder to make them hear,” he says.
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