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Today, I am going to talk about anger.


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When I was 11,

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seeing some of my friends 
leaving the school

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because their parents 
could not afford textbooks

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made me angry.

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When I was 27,

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hearing the plight
of a desperate slave father

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whose daughter was 
about to be sold to a brothel

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made me angry.

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At the age of 50,

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lying on the street,
in a pool of blood,

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along with my own son,

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made me angry.

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Dear friends, for centuries
we were taught anger is bad.

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Our parents, teachers, priests --

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everyone taught us how to control 
and suppress our anger.

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But I ask why?

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Why can't we convert our anger
for the larger good of society?

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Why can't we use our anger

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to challenge and change
the evils of the world?

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That I tried to do.

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Friends,

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most of the brightest ideas
came to my mind out of anger.

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Like when I was 35 and sat 
in a locked-up, tiny prison.

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The whole night, I was angry.

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But it has given birth to a new idea.

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But I will come to that later on.

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Let me begin with the story
of how I got a name for myself.

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I had been a big admirer 
of Mahatma Gandhi since my childhood.

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Gandhi fought and lead 
India's freedom movement.

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But more importantly,

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he taught us how to treat 
the most vulnerable sections,

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the most deprived people, 
with dignity and respect.

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And so, when India was celebrating

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Mahatma Gandhi's 
birth centenary in 1969 --

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at that time I was 15 --

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an idea came to my mind.

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Why can't we celebrate it differently?

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I knew, as perhaps
many of you might know,

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that in India, a large number of people
are born in the lowest segment of caste.

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And they are treated as untouchables.

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These are the people --

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forget about allowing them 
to go to the temples,

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they cannot even go into the houses 
and shops of high-caste people.

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So I was very impressed with 
the leaders of my town

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who were speaking very highly against
the caste system and untouchability

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and talking of Gandhian ideals.

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So inspired by that, I thought,
let us set an example

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by inviting these people to eat food
cooked and served

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by the untouchable community.

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I went to some low-caste,
so-called untouchable, people,

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tried to convince them,
but it was unthinkable for them.

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They told me, "No, no. It's not possible.
It never happened."

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I said, "Look at these leaders,

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they are so great, 
they are against untouchability.

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They will come. If nobody comes, 
we can set an example."

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These people thought that I was too naive.

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Finally, they were convinced.

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My friends and I took our bicycles
and invited political leaders.

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And I was so thrilled, rather, empowered

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to see that each one of them 
agreed to come.

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I thought, "Great idea.
We can set an example.

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We can bring about change in the society."

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The day has come.

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All these untouchables,
three women and two men,

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they agreed to come.

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I could recall that they had used 
the best of their clothes.

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They brought new utensils.

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They had taken baths 
hundreds of times

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because it was unthinkable
for them to do.

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It was the moment of change.

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They gathered. Food was cooked.

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It was 7 o'clock.

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By 8 o'clock, we kept on waiting,

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because it's not very uncommon 
that the leaders become late,

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for an hour or so.

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So after 8 o'clock, we took our bicycles
and went to these leaders' homes,

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just to remind them.

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One of the leader's wives told me,

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"Sorry, he is having some headache,
perhaps he cannot come."

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I went to another leader

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and his wife told me, 
"Okay, you go, he will definitely join."

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So I thought that the dinner
will take place,

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though not at that large a scale.

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I went back to the venue, which was
a newly built Mahatma Gandhi Park.

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It was 10 o'clock.

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None of the leaders showed up.

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That made me angry.

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I was standing, leaning against
Mahatma Gandhi's statue.

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I was emotionally drained,
rather exhausted.

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Then I sat down where 
the food was lying.

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I kept my emotions on hold.

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But then, when I took the first bite,

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I broke down in tears.

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And suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.

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And it was the healing, motherly touch 
of an untouchable woman.

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And she told me,
"Kailash, why are you crying?

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You have done your bit.

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You have eaten the food
cooked by untouchables,

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which has never happened in our memory."

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She said, "You won today."

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And my friends, she was right.

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I came back home, a little after midnight,

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shocked to see that several 
high-caste elderly people

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were sitting in my courtyard.

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I saw my mother and 
elderly women were crying

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and they were pleading 
to these elderly people

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because they had threatened 
to outcaste my whole family.

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And you know, outcasting the family
is the biggest social punishment

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one can think of.

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Somehow they agreed to punish only me,
and the punishment was purification.

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That means I had to go 600 miles
away from my hometown

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to the River Ganges to take a holy dip.

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And after that, I should organize a feast
for priests, 101 priests,

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wash their feet and drink that water.

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It was total nonsense,

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and I refused to accept that punishment.

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How did they punish me?

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I was barred from entering into my own 
kitchen and my own dining room,

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my utensils were separated.

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But the night when I was angry,
they wanted to outcaste me.

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But I decided to outcaste 
the entire caste system.

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(Applause)

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And that was possible because
the beginning would have been

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to change the family name, or surname,

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because in India, most of
the family names are caste names.

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So I decided to drop my name.

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And then, later on, I gave 
a new name to myself: Satyarthi,

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that means, "seeker of truth."

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(Applause)

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And that was the beginning 
of my transformative anger.

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Friends, maybe one of you can tell me,

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what was I doing before becoming
a children's rights activist?

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Does anybody know?

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No.

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I was an engineer, an electrical engineer.

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And then I learned how the energy

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of burning fire, coal,

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the nuclear blast inside the chambers,

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raging river currents,

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fierce winds,

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could be converted into the light 
and lives of millions.

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I also learned how the most
uncontrollable form of energy

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could be harnessed for good 
and making society better.

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So I'll come back to the story
of when I was caught in the prison:

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I was very happy freeing 
a dozen children from slavery,

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handing them over to their parents.

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I cannot explain my joy 
when I free a child.

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I was so happy.

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But when I was waiting for my train
to come back to my hometown, Delhi,

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I saw that dozens of children 
were arriving;

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they were being trafficked by someone.

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I stopped them, those people.

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I complained to the police.

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So the policemen, instead of helping me,

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they threw me in this small, 
tiny shell, like an animal.

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And that was the night of anger

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when one of the brightest 
and biggest ideas was born.

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I thought that if I keep on freeing 10 
children, and 50 more will join,

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that's not done.

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And I believed in the power of consumers,

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and let me tell you that this
was the first time

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when a campaign was launched by me
or anywhere in the world,

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to educate and sensitize the consumers


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to create a demand
for child-labor-free rugs.

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In Europe and America, 
we have been successful.

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And it has resulted 
in a fall in child labor

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in South Asian countries by 80 percent.

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(Applause)

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Not only that, but this first-ever 
consumer's power, or consumer's campaign

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has grown in other countries
and other industries,

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maybe chocolate, maybe apparel, 
maybe shoes -- it has gone beyond.

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My anger at the age of 11,

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when I realized how important
education is for every child,

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I got an idea to collect used books
and help the poorest children.

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I created a book bank at the age of 11.

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But I did not stop.

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Later on, I cofounded

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the world's single largest civil society
campaign for education

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that is the Global Campaign for Education.

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That has helped in changing 
the whole thinking towards education

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from the charity mode
to the human rights mode,

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and that has concretely helped 
the reduction of out-of-school children

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by half in the last 15 years.

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(Applause)

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My anger at the age of 27,

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to free that girl who was about
to be sold to a brothel,

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has given me an idea

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to go for a new strategy
of raid and rescue,

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freeing children from slavery.

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And I am so lucky and proud to say
that it is not one or 10 or 20,

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but my colleagues and I have been able
to physically liberate 83,000 child slaves

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and hand them over
back to their families and mothers.

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(Applause)

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I knew that we needed global policies.

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We organized the worldwide marches
against child labor

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and that has also resulted in 
a new international convention

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to protect the children
who are in the worst forms.

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And the concrete result was that
the number of child laborers globally

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has gone down by one third 
in the last 15 years.

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(Applause)

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So, in each case,

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it began from anger,

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turned into an idea,

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and action.

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So anger, what next?

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Idea, and --

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Audience: Action

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Kailash Satyarthi: Anger, idea, action.
Which I tried to do.

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Anger is a power, anger is an energy,

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and the law of nature is that energy

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can never be created and never 
be vanished, can never be destroyed.

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00:15:32,795 --> 00:15:39,685
So why can't the energy of anger
be translated and harnessed

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to create a better and beautiful world,
a more just and equitable world?

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Anger is within each one of you,

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and I will share a secret
for a few seconds:

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that if we are confined in 
the narrow shells of egos,

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and the circles of selfishness,

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then the anger will turn out to be
hatred, violence, revenge, destruction.

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But if we are able to break the circles,

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then the same anger could turn 
into a great power.

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We can break the circles 
by using our inherent compassion

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and connect with the world through 
compassion to make this world better.

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That same anger could be
transformed into it.

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So dear friends, sisters and brothers,
again, as a Nobel Laureate,

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I am urging you to become angry.

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I am urging you to become angry.

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And the angriest among us

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is the one who can transform his anger 
into idea and action.

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Thank you so much.

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(Applause)

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Chris Anderson: For many years, 
you've been an inspiration to others.

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Who or what inspires you and why?

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00:17:22,629 --> 00:17:24,341
KS: Good question.

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Chris, let me tell you, 
and that is the truth,

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each time when I free a child,

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the child who has lost all his hope
that he will ever come back to his mother,

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the first smile of freedom,

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and the mother who has lost all hope

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that the son or daughter 
can ever come back and sit in her lap,

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they become so emotional

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00:17:52,656 --> 00:17:57,809
and the first tear of joy 
rolls down on her cheek,

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I see the glimpse of God in it --
this is my biggest inspiration.

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And I am so lucky that not once,
as I said before, but thousands of times,

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I have been able to witness my God
in the faces of those children

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and they are my biggest inspirations.

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Thank you.

248
00:18:13,652 --> 00:18:15,665
(Applause)