Child Rights and You

Child Rights

Founded	1979
Founder	Rippan Kapur
Type	Non-governmental organization
Focus	Children's rights
Location	HO - Mumbai, India Branches - Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata
Website	www.cry.org

CRY - Child Rights and You is an Indian non-governmental organization that works towards ensuring happier childhoods for all children.

In 1979, Rippan Kapur, an Indian Airlines purser, started CRY with six friends and just Rs. 50. Today, over four decades later, CRY works with 102 grassroots NGOs across 19 states in India and has impacted the lives of over three million children.

CRY addresses children’s critical needs by working with parents, teachers, Anganwadi workers, communities, district and state-level governments, as well as the children themselves. The organization focuses on changing behaviors and practices at the grassroots level and influencing public policy at a systemic level, thus creating an ecosystem where children are the nation’s priority.

Children’s Rights Issues

At 472 million, children account for 40% of India’s population. And yet, only 3.16% of the 2020 Union Budget was allocated to their development and welfare. In fact, the National Plan of Action for Children recommends that budgetary allocations for children should be 5% of the country’s GDP - India has been stagnant at 0.43% of GDP for the last two years.

India’s children thus battle some of the worst circumstances in the world.

An estimated 46 million children, between 6-18 years of age, do not go to school (RGI Census Population Projection 2016 and UDISE 2016-17)

• 33 million child labourers go to work instead of school (Census 2011)
• 1 of 3 child brides in the world is from India (Unicef 2014)
• 2 of 3 child deaths, below the age of 5, are caused by malnutrition (Unicef 2019)
• 7.4 Million children are still not immunized; the highest in the world (Unicef)
• There has been a 500% increase in crimes against children between 2008-2018 (NCRB 2018)

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which was ratified by India in 1992, all children have fundamental rights which must be recognized by governments and citizens alike. Keeping that in mind, CRY works on 4 key areas:

• Education (Right To Development)
• Health & Nutrition (Right To Survival)
• Safety & Protection (Right To Protection)
• Child Participation (Right To Participation)

History

Established in 1979 as Child Relief and You, CRY was started by Rippan Kapur who dreamt of ensuring happier childhoods for Inh hkdia’s children. Rippan chose to build CRY as an institution that not only inspired India’s citizens to discover their potential for action and contribute to the solution but also empowered local NGOs with the funds as well as the technical know-how to create a lasting impact on the ground. Rippan Kapur passed away in 1994.

CRY participated in the ‘Voice Of India’ campaign, as a part of the National Alliance for the Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE), to propose a constitutional amendment to the government for free and compulsory education to all children. As a result of the ‘Voice of India’ campaign, NAFRE contributed towards bringing in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

CRY is a part of several international forums on children’s rights including Girls not Brides and the National Action and Coordination Group For Ending Violence Against Children (NACG-EVAC). NACG-EVAC is a national platform under the aegis of SAIEVAC which is an intergovernmental platform comprising eight SAARC countries.

Impact

In 2019-20, CRY has impacted the lives of over 6.8 lakh underprivileged children in India.

• 1,63,541 children in CRY project areas, between the ages of 6–18 years, in school
• 97% of children in CRY project areas, under the age of 1 year, immunized
• 88% of children in CRY project areas, under the age of 5 years, free from malnutrition
• 2,064 children in CRY project areas rescued from child labour, child marriage & child trafficking

Campaigns

CRY launches campaigns that amplify the voice of children and their rights.

• #YellowFellow: #YellowFellow is a CRY campaign that mobilizes citizens to raise awareness for every child’s right to a happy childhood. Launched in 2018, the campaign is a fun yet meaningful engagement activity where the public is encouraged to show their support for India’s children by becoming a #YellowFellow. To become a #YellowFellow, one would have to wear/use yellow socks in a unique, creative or quirky way and post a photo of themselves on social media tagging CRY and using the hashtag #YellowFellow. The campaign has reached 1.7 crore people across India and witnessed unique participation by 2300+ people including 73 celebrities and influencers.
• #LearnNotEarn: CRY’s campaign for World Day Against Child Labour in 2018 and 2019 that helped raise awareness on the issue of child labour in India. The campaign was based on the idea that dreams don’t discriminate but means do and encouraged citizens to ensure that children are able to go to school instead of work.
• #ItsAGirlThing: CRY released the #ItsAGirlThing campaign on National Girl Child Day 2019; an awareness campaign that aimed to break the stereotypes associated with girls. With a strong focus on digital engagement the campaign brought together the idea that girls too can do anything, if given the right opportunity.
• #NotYet: #NotYet was CRY’s Women’s Day 2020 campaign that aimed to raise awareness on the issue of child marriage. The campaign highlighted how girls in India are forced to embrace womanhood by getting married at a very young age, resulting in a loss of their childhoods. It sensitized the public to come forward and help girls complete their education and chase their dreams instead.
• #PooriPadhaiDeshKiBhalai: In April 2001,CRY had launched a national campaign in collaboration with Lintas Live, titled "PooriPadhaiDeshKiBhalai" to build awareness on the importance of India’s girls completing their secondary education and its encouraging correlation on the socio-economic growth of the country and seeks the participation of India’s citizens to come together and pledge their support for this initiative. Lintas Live partnered with Absolute Productions,as part of this film, to deliver this heartwarming campaign, set against the backdrop of rural heartland of the country, where the main character – a young girl – innocently leads a potential investor to reflect upon the real investment potential of the country and the ‘Big Impact’ of investing in the idea of supporting every girl to complete her secondary education is validated by stark statistics recounted by an educationist who enumerates the long-term economic benefits that this could bring to the country. The campaign's idea is also based in the real time data from a recent McKinsey Gender Parity Study (2018) that validates that employment of girl child can generate additional $770 billion to India’s GDP and hence the film concludes with a request to invest in the future of the nation by promoting the secondary education of the girl child and help harness the economic strength of the nation’s complete potential.
• #Body Shop India Partners With CRY: In year 2021,The Body Shop, the activist British beauty brand powered by purposeful feminism planned to partner with CRY – Child Rights and You,to create awareness about Periods, Period Shame and the impact of Period Shame of India’s girls & women and through this initiative,The Body Shop aims to normalize the conversation around periods and raise funds towards menstrual health and education efforts for communication deeply affected by the Covid pandemic. For four months starting from April'21 BodyShop India is partnering with CRY for: 1.CreatingPeriod Awareness: Using its wide network of stores, website and social media channels as touchpoints for creating heightened communication to normalize conversations around menstruation aimed at all genders. 2.Raising Funds for Period Projects in Pandemic-hit Communities:The BodyShop is promoting through its patrons and customers to support the cause with a small voluntary donation of Rs 20 for every purchase made through online shopping or direct stores and aiming to raise a minimum commitment of Rs 1.2 Millions.3.Donating Period Products: Collection of sealed period products as voluntary donations from consumers in Red Period Bins installed at all exclusive The Body Shop stores and donate the collections to local communities in need through CRY.4.Collect digital pledges at The Body Shop stores as well as different touch points from consumers, colleagues and others to propel personal action as:a.Pledge to NEVER HIDE my period products & carry them instead with pride.b.Pledge to tell a male family member about periods and have open conversations with everyone at home c.Pledge to be honest about my period experiences and use the word ‘period’ with my FRIENDS instead of confusing with other code words d.Pledge to make my COMMUNITY a period friendly environment, supporting education about period shame and providing quality products, private facilities and a proper disposable unit.e.Pledge to ask my SCHOOL to include expert period education in the curriculum.Through this initiative,The Body Shop and CRY are aiming to provide menstrual health awareness, education and free menstrual products to more than 10,000 ladies across 4500 households and also directly benefitting underprivileged girls and women from slum communities in Delhi/NCR where access to menstrual health and products have been hit severely by the pandemic. The project includes:

· Period Product distribution to more than 1000 adolescent girls and women of different age groups.

· Period Pathshala or schooling sessions to educate adolescent girls and boys on menstrual health and hygiene including usage of period products.

· Videos and Movie Screenings with adolescent girls and boys to build awareness and bust myths prevalent around menstruation and educate them.

· Anemia check-up kiosks to screen for common menstrual health conditions on regular basis.

· Capacity building sessions with Front line health workers from community including Anganwadi workers, ASHA, ANM and project team members to access benefit of Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS) and access to public sanitary pad schemes and educating other society members through them.

Awards & Recognition

In over 4 decades, CRY has received many awards in recognition of the work towards enabling better futures for underprivileged children.

• Most Trusted NGO (2018)
• One Of The Top 100 Nonprofits In The World (2018)
• Awarded to Puja Marwaha, CEO - CRY, For Social Innovation (2018)
• Best Multi Channel Campaign For A Cause (#YellowFellow 2018)
• ICAI CSR Award for Best CSR Project In Health & Education (2014)
• CFBP Jamnalal Bajaj Award For Fair Business Practices (2014)
• Quality Initiative Mission Award (2013)
• Citi Woman Leader Awarded To Puja Marwaha, CEO - CRY (2012)
• Fundraising Campaign Award (2011 & 2012)
• Lakshya Award (2009 & 2012)
• Indira Super Achiever Award (2003)
• Marketing Excellence Award For Social Awareness (2001)
• Viewers Choice Most Effective Ad Of the Year (1996)
• Citizen Of Bombay Award For Rippan Kapur (1991)

Financial information

CRY was the first Indian NGO to lay emphasis on establishing full accountability and complete transparency with the help of annual reports even when it was not mandated by the law. All their financials and related reports are available for perusal on their website www.cry.org.

See also

• Odisha State Child Protection Society
• Gopali Youth Welfare Society

External links

• www.cry.org