Kailash Satyarthi

Nearly 30 years ago Kailash Satyarthi left a promising career as an electrical engineer to set up Bachpan Bachao Andolan Childhood Movement and since then, by his own count, he has rescued more than 80,000 children. He also heads the Global March Against Child Labour, which represents about 2,000 social groups and union organisations in 140 countries. His campaigns over the years have ensured that India's carpet industry has stopped using child labour. For his work, he has endured death threats and attempts at incarceration, and two of his colleagues were even murdered. But he continues with his campaign because, he has said, "somebody has to accept the challenge whatever dangers are there". Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on 10 December 2014, Mr Satyarthi declined to deliver a lecture, saying instead: "I represent here the sound of silence. The cry of innocence. And, the face of invisibility".