The Rights' Way

Have you ever wanted to help others but didn't know how to? Do you have the passion to help the cause of child rights? Do you have the willingness to devote your time and effort to it? Do you want to do your bit for the society?
Here's your chance to prove yourself. Be a CRY volunteer. Pledge yourself to the cause of child rights. Help those in need.
It's easy. With a little time and effort, you can not only help in implementation of equal rights and universal education for children, but also prove your worth to your country.

Our volunteer book captures the work done by CRY East volunteers over the past one year. Hope reading it inspires you to join the cause.

For access to the document, click below:
The Rights' Way

A sneak peek at the cover page:

CRY East Blogging Team.

Midday Meals: A Long Way to Go

Despite the numerous promises and provisions, the Midday Meal program remains a non-starter. According to an article in the Telegraph, only 128 of the 1134 primary schools (a little over 10 per cent) of the Kolkata Primary School Council have cooked midday meals. Is this how it was expected to turn out, seven years after its implementation?

The startling news is that it is not the implementation of the MDM that poses the direct problem. Rather, it is the high dropout rate emerging from it that forms the crux of the problem. In the face of non-availability of meals in the schools, the children from socio-economically strata of the society have no choice but to turn to child labour in order to survive. As expected, studies reveal that girls’ school participation has been found to be 15 per cent higher in schools that provide MDM than in those that do not.

It is a classic case of a vicious circle where the non implementation of the MDM leads to depleting number of students in the schools which in turn leads to shutting down of these schools thereby bringing about the complete failure of the government’s ‘education for all’ plan.

A recent study by the Pratichi (India) Trust notes that more than two-thirds of primary schools in calcutta remain uncovered. In the words of the government officials themselves, Calcutta is a “laggard” district with MDM lacking in almost 70 per cent of its schools.

The few schools that do provide the meals do not provide nutritious and healthy food. The problem has its roots in rented school sites with limited space for cooking, rising costs of essential commodities, absence of community participation and delay in fund release from the Centre.

If the government has any hopes of overhauling the state of education in the country, its time they realize that only the successful implementation of the MDM scheme can bring about this much needed change.

For the original article, see the story in media:

Midday Meal Maladies

Sonam Chamaria

CRY Volunteer

A hope to bring a positive change

This is first post from our group; we are a bunch of students at IIT Kharagpur working as CRY Volunteers. We started in March 2010. It feels really good to join an internationally renowned NGO. We find articles on its achievements in national dailies regularly; we see people talking about CRY; these entire factors invite one to join this great NGO. Our induction session infused the vigor required to carry it forward. We started chalking out our plans. We have students from various fields like science, engineering, MBA and Law in our team. The mixed group helped us find ‘unity in diversity’. We decided to work upon issues related to Mid-Day Meal, BPL card and for making our campus disabled friendly.

After long sessions of discussions, we stated for our surveys with a set format of questionnaire with us. We had a feeling to changing the world with blow of our society. We thought of educating people with the huge fundas (an IITKGP slang for information) gained (during our discussion sessions) and all the possible schemes run by the state and the central government. To our surprise most of the schemes were already known to the villagers. We were amazed for a while. Within a span of time, we realized that our government has really got great plans for the upliftment of the society and especially for the unprivileged children. Unfortunately it was the implementation where all the problems were. We found that the political influence is the major cause for the people being deprived from their rights. In Mirpur village, people were aware of the BPL card and they even had applied for the card but were still waiting for a response from the authorities. In parallel our team was working for mid-day meal project in same village in Mirpur Adivasi Primary School. We got a chance to talk with the Principal of the school and catalyzed the Mid-Day Meal process there. Finally after five months this school has started receiving grant for mid-day meal from the government. Now we really appreciate the proverb, ‘nothing succeeds like success.’ Mid-day meal has not only benefited the children going to Mirpur Adivasi Primary School, but also motivated our group to work with more enthusiasm and devotion. We are looking forward to replicate the same in the other schools in the area where it has not started yet. We hope to put in constant efforts to bring a positive change in the society we live.


The Mirpur story in the media

CRY IIT Kharagpur

Volunteer Chapter