Beyond the Grades...

During the Golden Jubilee Year of IIM-Calcutta, over a period of 5 months, the Initiative for Community Action (INCA) and CRY – Child Rights and You – teamed up to bring the issue of Child Rights to the forefront of the IIMC students’ minds.

The continuous, phased-out awareness and engagement programmes not only shed light on the numerous issues faced by millions of underprivileged children in India, but also helped generate a buzz within the IIM-C campus, motivating students to stand up for child rights.

The first event was organised during Mandi 2010 – a campus event where students put in their best efforts to design strategies to sell their products. Along with the 8 finalist teams who put up their stalls, a CRY World stall was also put up. aspects of child rights, the INCA-CRY team also organised a Blog competition on ‘The other side of Life….’ to stimulate students to spare a thought for those outside the IIMC campus, and indeed beyond the comforts experienced by most students.

In the month of December 2010, the ‘CRY torchbearer of the campus’ competition was held to create a buzz about child rights and CRY, and motivate students to think of innovative ideas to add value to CRY’s work. Three competitions formed a part of this event:

1)Inquizitive - A quizzing competition about child rights and issues organised by INCA- CRY in association with the quiz club of the campus in which 9 teams fought the battle of the grey cells.

2)Ad mad competition - Here students designed videos condemning child labour practices thereby unleashing their creativity for a good cause.

3)Hidden me - Students sent-in photos depicting Childhood/ Child rights and unwinding 1000 of questions hidden behind those deep eyes.

The INCA-CRY initiative was a great success, with active participation of over 50 students in the different contests and many more students being sensitised to the issue of child rights in India.

This is what the students involved in this initiative felt….

“Though it is difficult to be associated with a noble cause on a continuous basis amidst an environment where everyone is running to achieve something tangible or the other, but these are the causes which succeed in fetching you an everlasting happiness by giving you an ultimate satisfaction”- Ekta Goel

“Today, students are more socially aware than before and want to contribute in whatever way they can, but do not always have a platform where they can speak their minds out. The events held through this initiative, gave students a platform to speak on a subject very close to everyone. It was heartening to see people contribute not only through their blogs and entries but also through contributions to help CRY in resource generation.” – Akshay Prabhu


* This initiative won the Best Project Award from INCA (IIM-Calcutta) for the year 2010 among 18 groups!