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

A Larger Heart than Mine

This happened around a month back. It was my cousin’s wedding and I was on my way to the destination. Dressed in all our finery, me, my mother and sisters were busy talking among ourselves and were thoroughly enjoying our little trip in our comfortable air-conditioned car.

When we reached the crossing at Park Street, there was, as usual, a traffic jam, and so we had to stop there for a while. It was then that a small child of around 10, selling luxuriant bunches of roses, began tapping at our window. Now, anyone living in Calcutta knows what I am talking about- you see these children at most busy crossings, trying their best to sell you something in order to eke out a living. We were too busy to notice him in the beginning… He, however, did not rest until he’d drawn our attention towards himself.

We saw that the flowers he was selling were really fresh but it was sad that my dad being in another car, we had absolutely no money on ourselves. My mother thus rolled down her window, looked at the boy and told him that despite admiring the flowers a lot, she wouldn’t be able to buy them and thus, he shouldn’t be wasting his time on us. The boy refused to budge and thrust a bunch in through the window. My mother returned the bunch, repeating we had no money and suggesting that maybe if he approached another car, he might manage to sell one.

The child then did something that touched each one of us in a way very few things do. As the traffic lights turned green, he thrust the bunch into my mother’s hand, asking her to keep it, for free, saying just one simple sentence- “Rakh lijiye. Aapko achha laga na?”. Not listening to our protests, the child walked away, leaving the bunch with us.

This got us all thinking…How much time do we all spend haggling with the grocery store owner, the sabjiwallahs, the fruit sellers or even other street vendors, for as little as five or ten bucks? And here was this little boy, with hardly any money in his pocket who had just humbled us all by giving us a whole bunch of roses simply because my mother had liked them… This, despite him knowing how much he could have earned had he sold the bunch to someone else…

My heart reaches out to him, and so many others like him, who, by their simple deeds, not only touch hearts, but also prove to be more educated than all of us “educated” ones… and who have larger hearts than we do…

Sonam Chamaria

CRY volunteer

Rabindra Sadan's Bijoy

Before starting anything I would like to say something. All the information provided was collected by me during the period of May – July when I was on vacation in Kolkata doing my internship at CRY. Every day when I used to go for internship I had to get down at Rabindra Sadan and walk half a kilometre to Rabindra Sadan. While walking on the pavement I saw a child about 5 years of age begging while sitting on his mother’s lap. I noticed it about for a fortnight and then unable to control myself interacted with them.
In the meantime I regularly gave him some monetary help but I doubt that really helped their living. The mother and the child were well accustomed with my face because I generally used to pass by that place at the same time. But when they saw no monetary help came from my side and instead I sat down, they were a bit offended. The mom said, “You also came to take some photographs and write something about me and then publish it anywhere. Are we things to be played with or display items kept for window shopping?” I said in a quiet manner, “The person whom I am helping every day, I have come to be friends with them”. Saying this I handed a cake to the child and asked his name. In reply he said his name was “Bijoy” which means victory. But he never knew his name had a great irony hidden. A broad smile came on the child’s face. I was really pleased to see this. Then the first thing I said was that where do they stay all through the night. The mom promptly replied they live just inside of the Rabindra Sadan Mancha behind the staircase, and during the rains they had to shift in the Nandan Theatre ground. It was really a shocking reply for me. After sleeping on a cosy bed and getting every luxury of my life at my fingertips it was really a very bad dream to me when I thought their way of living!
I then asked them what they have in the whole day. The mom started shedding her tears and pointed to a “muriwala”, and then says she remained starved most of the days but she ensures that her child gets atleast something to eat. The mom buys “muri” from that person and somedays when the “muriwala” earns a good amount of revenue gives them some amount of free “muri” which the mom eats. The food that the child eats does not amount to 1230 kcalories.
And it was really foolish of me to ask that whether the child goes to any school or not. The mom said that the child might not know even the meaning of school and it was pretty natural. After this interaction I went away giving a packet of biscuit to the child. The child seemed to be happier but the mom who showed her management skills and kept the packet aside for the latter part of the day.

Debangshu Dinda
CRY Intern
KIIT Law School