“This is the time to globalise compassion. And compassion is solving the problems of each other without any expectations of return,” Nobel laureate and human rights activist Kailash Sathyarthi has said.
Delivering the keynote address at the valedictory ceremony of the 7th edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) in Kozhikode on Sunday, he urged everyone to think of the children killed in wars, the ones traded into slavery, and those who suffer sexual abuse as one’s own.
In an earlier session on his book Why Didn’t You Come Sooner?, Mr. Sathyarthi said the Nobel Prize did change his life, and that world leaders started listening to him. “Some of my ideas such as eradication of child labour and bonded labour have been included in the revised Sustainable Development Goals, which I consider one of my biggest achievements,” he said.
He asked people what was stopping them from making a difference. “You have to be angry to establish peace in the world,” he said, asking the younger generation to channelise their anger towards injustice to fight against it.
The four-day literature festival concluded on a high note with the participation of over five lakh people, with around 600 speakers taking part in 330 sessions.
Minister for Forests and Wild Life A.K. Saseendran inaugurated the valedictory ceremony in the presence of KLF chief facilitator Ravi Dee Cee, Mayor Beena Philip, District Collector Snehil Kumar Singh, Turkish Ambassador to India Firat Sunel, and Nissar Kara, representative of the Ministry of Culture, Turkey.
Festival director K. Satchidanandan announced that the eighth edition of KLF would be held at the same venue from January 9 to 12, 2025.
