From Fire to Light: A Journey of Compassion

3 Minutes Read

Each Diwali, our conversations glow with familiar questions. Are the crackers green? Are they safe for the air we breathe and the planet we share?

These are fair, timely concerns. But if you were living in the 1990s, your question would have been far graver. Back then, it wasn’t about whether a cracker was green—it was whether it was red with the blood of a child.

The headlines of the 1990s were filled with stories of explosions tearing through fireworks factories, lives lost in smoke and fire, and the shocking truth that many of those working inside were children. A cracker in one child’s hand often came at the cost of another child’s life.

Across India, such tragedies unfolded, but Sivakasi, in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district stood at the centre of national attention.

Even today, Sivakasi remains India’s fireworks capital, producing the majority of the country’s firecrackers. Decades ago, its precision and productivity earned it the title “Mini Japan.” Yet that excellence came at a terrible cost; the lost childhoods of thousands who toiled in its factories. Explosions like the 1991 Sivakasi blast forced the nation to confront the true price of its celebrations. Investigations revealed that children as young as six were working long hours with sulphur, phosphorus, and gunpowder—risking their lives under the excuse that “child labour is a necessary evil for growing economies.”

But amid those flames, a movement began. A Movement that ignited the spark of compassion, seeking to replace exploitation with justice.

Compassion is not a soft emotion. It is the most powerful transformative force that leads us to act to alleviate other’s suffering as if it were our own.

With that same fire of compassion in the hearts, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, had already been rescuing children from the worst forms of child labour across India. These rescues laid the moral and evidentiary foundation for the Public Interest Litigation filed by M.C. Mehta, culminating in the landmark Supreme Court judgment of 1996 (M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu).

That judgment changed India’s legal landscape forever. It banned the employment of children under 14 in hazardous industries, mandated their rehabilitation through education, and reaffirmed that child labour is not merely an economic issue—it is a moral wound.

Yet, it was not the judgment alone that changed history. It was the movement that sustained the flame—transforming rescue into reform, and compassion into policy. Kailash Satyarthi carried this fight beyond India’s borders, building a global coalition of conscience. He led the Global March Against Child Labour (1998), which inspired the adoption of ILO Convention 182 (1999)—banning the worst forms of child labour worldwide.

In India, that same spirit shaped stronger laws, culminating in the 2016 amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, which now forbids all employment of children below 14 and hazardous work for adolescents below 18.

And that is how our question has changed—from red to green. Because a few people dared to see what others ignored. Because compassion refused to stay silent.

At the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion, we believe that the future will not be shaped by laws or fear alone, but by compassionate action.

The crisis that once burned in Sivakasi is only one face of a larger truth. Around the world, exploitation, inequality, and indifference continue to threaten the very soul of civilization. The same compassion that freed children from factories must now guide us through new challenges—from wars and poverty to climate injustice and social alienation.

Kailash Satyarthi says: “We are in the midst of a crisis of civilization. Human connect through compassion is the most powerful way to restore justice, peace and sustainability in the world. Let us globalise compassion and learn how to walk together.”

His words are not a reflection on the past, but a call for the future. Compassion cannot remain local; it must become global. The fight against child labour showed us what is possible when humanity stands together. Now, that same courage and empathy must illuminate every dark corner of our fractured world—to restore justice, equality, peace, and sustainability for all.

So, as diyas shimmer on your thresholds this Diwali, may another light awaken within—one that burns not just for festivity, but for humanity.

Because the brightest flame is not the one that dazzles the sky, but the one that keeps humanity alive.