Mission Education! Click for Child Rights

CRY IIT Kharagpur Volunteer Chapter is back with its annual online photography contest, 'Focus Right'. Theme of the photography event: Mission Education.All entries must be sent as attachments to cryiitkgp@gmail.com along with the subject "Focus Right 2.0".



For more information, visit: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181052451936961

IMPORTANT DATES:
Last date for submission: 15th March 2011
Voting period on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CRY.IITKGP): 17th-26th March 2011
Declaration of results: 3rd April 2011



For any related queries, contact:
CRY IIT Kharagpur Volunteer Chapter
Faizan Sarwar +91 9474816301
B Niharika +91 9564477348

Shahrukh Khan, is it???

SHAHRUKH KHAN….no it’s not the King Khan of Bollywood we are talking about. This real life story is about a small little 10 year old boy who stays in Rajabazar and works for making paper plates. It is surprising to see that a person with the same name and living in the same country suffers different fates in life…India declared the Right to Education a Fundamental Right expecting to enhance the education scenario of the country. It is expected that more children would go to school and fulfill their dreams but a case like Shahrukh Khan…this little boy doesn’t want to study or either go to school. Being asked whether he wants to study or not he replied he wants to work because he sees his future in working and earning money for the family….




His parents stay back in the village and he has got an elder brother who works in a file making company…this little boy stays with his grandmother here and enjoying life in his own way. It is strange that the little boy when asked said that he assumes that there are lots of fun activities in schools but he wants to enjoy his work and make it a fun filled effort so that he doesn’t miss the fun which other kids at his age is enjoying. It gives a clear picture that he is very practical about his life but he has lost the essence of life at his age. Instead of playing and going to school he is engaging in work and earning Rs.300 weekly. He makes it a point to transfer the money back in village to his parents and visits them every weekend… Many such children of this young age are losing their childhood just in order to earn a living…..

Is it not a question of humanity and child rights…??? Don't we have a role to play?? Think…..

Shakya Singha Sen
Law Student

CRY stall at Kshitj 2011

The merchandise had just come the day before. We were excited about having a CRY stall at Kshitj 2011, Asia’s largest Techno Management fest. We thought that this would be a perfect opportunity for spreading awareness and make an impact among thousands of people. We had just opened up the stall at 10 am. And we had many curious onlookers already staring at us when we are preparing the stall. Me, Sangitadi,Faizan, Miriam, Geetika and Anuja were just deciding which merchandise to put where and make the designs more holistic and attractive to the eye. We had put up Child Rights posters shared by CRY. Plus we decided to take the printouts of some of the best pictures that we had got in the photography contest last year. Needless to say it was striking to the eye. We felt like entrepreneurs about to open our first venture together.

There was a sense of passion in everyone to do something good for the society. Niharika and Meena just came with a beautiful collage that they had done of a girl and a boy sitting in a large pencil with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan written on the top. Both of them had put up a lot of effort at the collage and it clearly showed on the detailed collage. Saptak and I were the first customers. We bought a T shirt each and wore that over our T shirt and it looked nice. Niharika was so bowled over the soft toys that she said she and her friends would buy the entire stock themselves. I felt like I went back to art school when everyone used to put up lots of effort in their items and designs.


People started pouring in and started asking and inspecting the child art products.. We were excited when we made our first sells. The people were enthusiastic and kept asking questions about CRY. We explained about CRY plus the work we had done like Access Audit, Mirpur school success and the many entries that we got in the photography contest enthralled them. More and More people started pouring in and within a few hours we had sold most of the products. We had sold out all the wares in a few hours that we thought we will sell in three days. There were happy smiles in all the volunteers’ faces that came from the success we had. We all planned to take more such initiatives and make a bigger impact this year. We couldn’t have asked for a better start this year for our volunteer chapter than this.


Himen Doley
IIT-Kharagpur