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CRY Ambassadors celebrate girl power across DU

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Isn’t it phenomenal when a bunch of young women get together and pledge to raise awareness among their friends on the issue of the rights of young girls across the country? That is just what the campus ambassadors from CRY have been doing in the last one week. They’re very driven and there is nothing that can come in the way of their fight for child rights in the campus.

The last one week, they celebrated the fierce, young girls and women across the Capital that they work for, at CRY.

While Aarushee, the Child Rights Leader from Hansraj set up a stall at her College fest and spread awareness on the issue of education of girls through games, Himani, from IP College for women got about a 100 plus young women, migrant labourers and girl children to complete the sentence on a board with the line, “I am a Girl and I can…”. Just watching the women write sentences like, “I’m a girl and I can dance on the streets”, I am a woman and I too can fight” was overwhelming.

hansraj-1           hansraj-4       ip-college-4

Dimpy too from Miranda House initiated the ‘Make a wish for a girl’ campaign at her college. She asked her friends put in their wishes for girls across the country. The college wished for education, health, protection, safety etc for girls across the country.

miranda-house

With such passion and commitment, we can’t wait to see the magic they create in Delhi University this year.

 

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Ready to take over the world: Young girls from CRY dream big against all odds

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It is that week of the year when we specially remember and think of all the phenomenal women around the world – women who break stereotypes, who are unafraid to question and are not broken by defeat. Child Rights and You (CRY), an organization that works for the rights of children in India brings to us the stories of 4 resilient young girls who have not only dreamt out louder than most children their age but are also working very hard towards making their dreams come true. The volunteers of CRY have been working to help nurture the precious dreams of these resilient, young girls. They have their feet on the ground yet have their eyes on the stars. These young girls are leaders and role models in their communities. Excerpts from some stories: 

Anu – The Athlete

“What do you want to be when you grow up?,” Anu, a young girl from CRY’s Public Action Group at Dwarka was asked. “I want to be in the police force, she says. And I want to be able to run like PT Usha someday. Or even faster!,”  she exclaims.

Anu practices running everyday after school. No, she doesn’t have fancy tracks to run on. And no, she doesn’t have someone to coach her either. Anu  practices at a small park right outside her basti from 4-6pm everyday.

Anu

Purnima – The Drama Queen

Purnima is a drama queen, quite literally. She loves watching movies and practicing her dialogues. “My mother often tells me it is stupid and unrealistic to dream to be an actor when you come from a basti like ours. But I don’t think she gets it. I can show you. I can act like Katrina if you want me to.”, she says, as she then, very animatedly acts out a scene from the movie Fitoor.

Purnima

Tannu – The Singer

Tannu was not good at English and would get punished often by the teacher for not being able to complete her assignment on time. This had taken a toll on her confidence. Once a CRY volunteer not only spoke to the teacher about the best practice to help Tannu improve in her assignments but also started working very closely with her to understand her subject of interest.

Today, 3 years later, Tannu dreams of being a rockstar. She has recently expressed an interest in starting her own Youtube channel.

Tannu

Nindi – The karate kid

Nindi Kumari was all of 16 when going to school got difficult for her because of serious harassment situations. The martial arts classes however costed her more than she had imagined.  As a consequence, she went to school in the day and took up stitching in the afternoon to fund her martial arts class. 4 years on, she now is a gold medalist at a district and state level and has made not only her family proud but is also a proud Martial Arts trainer for about 50 girls in her locality.

These young girls are unapologetic and are turning their vulnerabilities into their inspiration. They are unafraid of defeat and are setting an example for other girls in their community. As we celebrate women and their strength this week, we at DU Beat along with CRY would like to celebrate their resilience and courage.

Nindi

Information and picture source: CRY Database and Media Advocacy Team

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Run For Child Rights: CRY’s Child Rights Leaders organise a marathon across North Campus

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Child Rights and You, also known as CRY, an NGO that works for the underprivileged children and protection of child rights in India, organised a marathon-‘Run for Child Rights’, on 26 February 2016, at Delhi University North Campus to bring about an awareness about child labour in India. The marathon was organized by CRY’s Child Rights Leaders across 8 colleges in Delhi University.

With a turnout of about a 100 students, the marathon began from the Vishwavidyalaya metro station and covered most colleges in the campus including Miranda House, Ramjas, Hindu, St.Stephens, SRCC, Hansraj, Kirori Mal, SGTB Khalsa and Daulat Ram College. 

With morning zest, student volunteers at the marathon raised slogans like- “Education is our birth right, child labour we must fight, Hamane aab hain ye thana, bal bazdoori ko jad se mitana, Abhi humey karni hai padhai, mat karvaao humse kamaai”. 

The marathon was organized keeping in mind the rising number of Child Labourers in the campus and how we, as young adults, have got so immune to seeing these children engage in labour, that seldom do we stop and think twice about helping them get out of their situation. 

While we sit in the comfort of our warm blankets and enjoy the luxuries of our life, the child labour statistics of the country are staggering. As per the National Census 2011, India has 10.1 million child labourers in the age group of 5 to 14. 168 million children are estimated to be engaged in Child Labour around the world (ILO, 2012) that means every 17th working child in the world is in India.

Child labour, somehow, has become a social norm that we accept and tolerate in our society. This exploitative and abusive practice will continue unless society adopts a zero tolerance attitude towards it. Children continue to be exploited and abused because the State and people do not address children’s issues comprehensively and effectively.

However, only ‘rescuing’ children, often will not help. What is required is addressing the reasons that force children to work. Children work mainly to help their families because the adults do not have appropriate employment and adequate income. Children also work because there is a demand for cheap labour in the market. When children are forced to work long hours their ability to get adequate nourishment and to attend school is limited, preventing them from gaining education. Therefore, the need of the hour is to rise and give voice to these children who slog the innocence of their childhood in labour and give them the bright future they rightfully deserve. 

Image credits: CRY team 

Riya Chhibber 

[email protected] 

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Celebrating the Joy of Volunteering with CRY

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“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”- Barack Obama

There is a huge range of NGOs working towards different causes including welfare of children; empowerment of women; elimination of poverty, among others. These NGOs aid in promoting the ‘joy of volunteering’, and one such NGO that has provided ample opportunities to the youth to volunteer is CRY, Child Rights and You!

Today, we witness volunteers, especially the youth; pushing their limits and stepping out of their comfort zone to create awareness, raising funds and even encouraging others to do the same. They not only take up ground work enthusiastically, but also deliver their best in other fields of work as well. While colleges give the students an opportunity to learn about various aspects of life; their association with different NGOs these days, also help these students impart their knowledge to others.
Kaashvi Sehgal, a student of Indian origin from Jakarta, interned with Child Rights and You (CRY) this summer. She shares her experience saying, “Not only had these kids adapted to what I was teaching them so fast, but they also had the same burning desire to learn something new every single day. As a teacher, there was nothing better than to see my students grow.” Sehgal, who is just 14 years old, started her own Spanish classes at CRY’s Dakshinpuri center.

The act of volunteering not only enhances the quality of the life of the people in need, but also changes the course of life of the volunteers and pushes them towards a brighter side. It reveals a newer and better aspect of life to them. Divyanshu, a volunteer with CRY for over four years says, “I feel people like me only run the whole world, so if I won’t venture into new directions, those directions will remain unexplored by humankind, so I thought let’s just do it.” Divyanshu after quitting his corporate job at Flipkart, has created an online platform which offers volunteers the opportunity to pick customized social projects as per their interests and talents. The product is called “Live for Lives” and will be released in the coming months.

Divyanshu Pic

Mohit Hattar is another volunteer who joined the organization when he was still in college. He revived the Public Action Group in Dwarka after months of advocacy and awareness raising work with community members in Dwarka. He also took Remedial Classes for the children and undertook enrollment of the children in schools. For his work as a volunteer, he was commended as one of the best volunteers at CRY. After working very closely with the children for more than 2 years, he has now embarked on a professional career but believes volunteering will remain an important part of his life.

“Hearing children call me “Mohit Sir” or “Mohit Bhaiya” is a bliss. Every place that I have worked in, those faces, those names and those voices just got stuck in my mind every time and that continuous attachment has kept me going all this time. Along with that is the environment you keep on working in and a sudden change in that certainly affects your work. Children at different localities behave differently and hence I had to become flexible in the way I operate”, says Mohit. 

Mohit Hattar

Thus, we see how volunteering can be delightful, helpful and enlightening at the same time. In a world, where incidents like the infamous Paris Attacks dilute our faith in humanity; we hope to see young and enthusiastic volunteers extending their helping hands to uplift the ones in need.

To volunteer and get involved with CRY, contact them on :

Tel: 011-29533451/52/53

Email: [email protected]

Image credits: Child Rights and You Database 

Shaurya Sahai
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

The Top Reasons Why it’s Time to Give Our Children a Healthy Start

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Have you ever wondered why some people around us stand out for how short or skinny they are? Or noticed the children in or around construction sites, a little infant who seems to walk/crawl but looks not older than 6 months to 7 months? Dear reader, these observations infact point to a very big problem that we as a nation have failed to address. A frail body or being too short for their age is nothing but a manifestation of childhood malnutrition which is taking a toll on our future. A deeper understanding of the scourge is well evident from the appalling statistics that came up in a research undertaken by CRY, a non-profit organisation that works for Child Rights in India.  

An Opportunity Missed

The 0-6 age group is the time when most of our physical, mental and social growth and development happens. The impact of early childhood care and nutrition remains telling throughout our lives. Children who fall prey to malnutrition at this age are very likely to fall short in a lot of areas for almost all of their lives, while those who get the right nutrition, immunization and education would do much better in all indicators of growth, intelligence and social development.

The Glaring Reality

In an effort to see whether children in India are getting ahealthy start, CRY carried out a study on malnutrition in children between the ages of 0-6 years in 18 Slums across 5 metro cities. The results show a very dismal picture with over half the children being too short for their age, and about half of them being underweight for their age. It was also found that other essential services such as timely immunization, regular deworming and provision of nutritional supplements were also not optimal.

 

Nutritional Status of Children

 

Reaching children who missed out

There remain gaps in the effort to reach the affected children as the study found that the planned interventions reach less than half of the beneficiaries. Only 47 per cent of the children were enrolled in  Anganwadi Centres through which most of the schemes for children are channeled. The outreach efforts that are planned to educate parents about the right nutrition for their child are also effective only 20 per cent of the times.

Making the difference

In the face of these challenges, the green shoots that stand out are promising, for example 83 per cent  children like going to the Anganwadi Centre. The study also pointed that if the quality of services at the centre is bettered then the incidence of child malnutrition also falls. Therefore, there are clear signs which point to the direction which policy should take to create a better future for the children of this country. Let’s move and give our children the bright future they deserve!

 

-Pankhuri Jha

(Intern, CRY – Child Rights and You)

Pankhuri Jha is an intern with CRY, Delhi. An alumni of Lady Shri Ram College college herself, Pankhuri’s interest lies in the field of development economics, especially the financial and health risks faced by the poor. At CRY she worked very closely with the research team in the analysis of data of the nutritional status among children from the age of 0-6 years in slums across Delhi.  The research, in her words helped her, “get a practical insight into the health consequences of living in poverty and a first hand idea as to how this can be corrected”

Image Courtesy : CRY Database 

 

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News

CRY initiates Child Rights Leader Programme across DU

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“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”– Malala Yousafzai

There are no qualms about the fact that children are the buds of a country’s future and it is the blooming of these buds that ultimately decides any state’s fortune. Taking the same thought forward, CRY (Child Rights and You), an esteemed non-profit organisation in India, that aims to restore children’s rights, has initiated a Child Rights Leader Program across Delhi University this year.

Child Rights Leader program is a unique youth intervention strategy where only one ‘Child Rights Leader’ has been handpicked from every college. The chosen leader will not only lead a movement for child rights in his/her campus but will also be involved in bringing awareness among young college students on issues of Child Rights with a special focus on Child Labour.

Out of a total of approximately 100 application that were received in the north region itself, a total of 8 students were shortlisted on the basis of their application forms and interviews as Child Rights Leaders for their colleges.

Final Shortlisted Student’s for the program are:

  1. Nupur Bhardwaj – Miranda College, University of Delhi.
  2. Rijuta Pandey – Hindu College, University of Delhi.
  3. Yeshi Lhamu Bhutia – Daulat Ram College , University of Delhi.
  4. Vedant sachdeva Govi – Kirori Mal College , University of Delhi
  5. Saniya Singh – Jesus and Mary College , University of Delhi.
  6. Tanya Agrawal – Indraprastha College for Women , University of Delhi.
  7. Archita Lahiri – Delhi College of Arts and Commerce , University of Delhi.
  8. Archit Singhal – Ramjas College, University of Delhi.

The selected Child Rights Leaders were inducted on 11 September 2015 where they were not only briefed about the history of CRY and its vision, but were also given a presentation on Child Labor, the issue that they will be working on in their campaign. The final CRLs are  all set to lead a movement against Child Labour in their campuses with zeal and enthusiasm for a change.

Riya Chhibber

[email protected]

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