Satyarthi was born in Vidisha, a small town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh into a middle-class Hindu family. He is the youngest among four brothers and a sister in his family. His father was a retired police head constable and his mother was an uneducated housewife with high morals. As per Satyarthi, this exceptionally idealistic and helpful nature of his mother had a big impact on him. He was raised in a locality ("mohalla") where Hindus and Muslims lived with each other. As a four-year-old toddler, he learned to read Urdu from the Maulvi at the neighboring mosque and learned Hindi and English in his school.