2. CRY – Child Rights and You (earlier known as Child Relief and You) is
India’s leading advocate for child rights. For over 30 years, CRY has
partnered with NGOs, communities, government and the media. CRY
works towards mobilising all sections of society to eliminate the root
causes of deprivation, exclusion, exploitation and abuse. For more
information please visit us at www.cry.org.
Created by CRY East Volunteers for CRY, 2010
Editing:
Nitish Khanna
Surabhi Tandon
Designing:
Cover Page: Saswat Kumar Sahu
Inner pages: Debangshu Dinda
Contributors:
Biswajit Roy Chaudhury
Moumita Chakraborty
Piyush Bagaria
Sulagna Nandy
Cover page Photo Coutesy:
JUPC
Content Advisor:
Anupama Muhuri

3. We Volunteers
I am a CRY
Volunteer
already..!!!
It’s your
turn...join us..!!!

4. Editors’ Speak....
The writing of this book has indeed been much more than just a learning
experience. Compiling it and getting to know how the volunteers belonging
to different age groups, places and areas of work expertise, has made us
realise even more that if you believe in something, if you want to change
something, it does not matter who you are or what you can do, all that
matters is that you BELIEVE you can do it. With this in mind we bring out
the “The Right’s Way’, to showcase our readers, the work done by CRY
Volunteers in the arena of child rights and to also invite more and more
people, become a part and contribute in their own way and strengthen the
cause.
This book is an attempt to bring people closer to Child Rights, give a
glimpse into the work of volunteers belonging to various groups we have
and share views and experiences of people associated with CRY – their
transition from Volunteers to Change Makers. Our endeavors would have
been incomplete without the support of various volunteer groups and
institutes CRY Volunteer Action has teamed up with. We would like to
dedicate this year book to all our volunteers who are the backbone of this
endeavor.
We would also like to thank and acknowledge the contribution of each and
every member who has contributed in putting together this yearbook.
We hope this book will help in bringing you closer to Child Rights.
Happy Reading!
Nitish Khanna
Surabhi Tandon

5. Foreword:
Volunteers are an integral part of our ideations and
interventions to bring about meaningful changes to promote
the cause of child rights. They are the ones who make it
possible for us to stretch our boundaries and keep exploring
ways to sensitise more and more people and bring them on
board. Also, they lobby with the government to make sure
policies and schemes are people friendly. So, what is unique?
They are neither paid, nor professionally trained for such
work, nor is it their only engagement! What binds them
together and keeps them focused, is their passion for this
cause and the genuine willingness to do something
worthwhile
We are indeed very happy to see this capsule presentation of
our volunteers’ work, which was planned and is prepared by
a group of interns and volunteers, representing the
enthusiastic bunch of volunteers we have in the East!
We believe the milestones achieved and experiences shared
shall help you build a better perspective on Child Rights.
Do read it, share it with your friends, and join us if you wish
to be one of the change makers!
Anupama & Diya
CRY, Kolkata

6. Who are the CRY Volunteers?
Cry volunteers are individuals from all walks of life uniting together for
the cause of CHILD RIGHTS and striving towards ensuring that every
child in India gets equal rights and opportunities. They comprise of
professionals, media persons, lawyers, journalists, students,
academicians, teachers, homemakers and any other citizen who feel
responsible to act for this cause.
These volunteers work as a team, stand up for Child Rights and take
action instead of being just passive observers. The various initiatives
undertaken by the volunteers range from being part of a fact finding
team , to organizing event and dialogues, to meeting concerned
authorities, expressing our views through theatre performances and issue
based films, and even writing a letter to the Editor.
Each volunteer besides their time and commitment brings in her/his own
creativity and perspective not only towards the issue but towards the
society at large. These efforts sometimes become very significant in
shaping the way CRY and even at times the government organisations go
about tackling issues concerning the well being of children.
During the process of working towards this cause, we experience a great
transformation in ourselves, not only in skills, but also in our perspective
and approach of viewing and working on different burning social issues
and applying our rationale in finding a solution rather than just gaining
knowledge about them. The work and the learning humbles us, makes us
feel more responsible as a citizen of this country to do something
worthwhile
We are over 100 volunteers in East India and still counting…

7. College Collectives is an initiative which
involves the youth in colleges. They are
groups facilitated by CRY that help
students build their perspectives on
Child Rights and Human Rights, and
incubates youth activism. This initiative
aims in channelizing youth’s energy to
take action for child rights through
creative, legal and other forms of
expression. In this way leadership is
built amongst college youth so that
they can act for these causes and find
their roles in the process of social
change.

8. Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta)
Who we are:
INCA is a social initiative of IIM Calcutta
students, which brings together students who
are interested in working with NGOs. Every
year, a group of students joins hands with
CRY and contributes in their own way in
propagating Child Rights. Since 2006, a group
of students has worked on social projects in
discussion with CRY and submitted reports to
put forward their findings in order to
mainstream child rights sensitivity within their
institute.
What we did:
• In Mandi (a very popular intra IIM
marketing event), an advertising
contest was floated for the preliminary
round with a child rights theme “Is
education for all a reality?”.
• IIM connect is an inter-IIM professional
networking tool which has over 900
members comprising students,
faculties, and alumni who have worked
along with CRY. The CRY logo
connecting to the CRY volunteer page
has been put up in the home page Did you know?
• A market research under our event 65% of school going
“Ulhaas”, tried to get response and
trends from people on volunteering for children reported facing
social causes corporal punishment i.e.
two out of three children
• Research was conducted on volunteer were victims of corporal
engagement options for diverse public punishment
groups
Volunteer Speak:
“CRY has a group of really enthusiastic people who are result-driven, and this
enthusiasm inspires the volunteers to deliver their best. Working with CRY was an
extremely satisfying experience; it was a challenging project and our recommendations
were taken very seriously”
Ankit Sukhija
Student

9. National University of Juridical Sciences
Human Rights Legal Advocacy Group
Who we are:
We are a group of 12-15 volunteers involved in this
initiative. The initiative began with a group of students
from IIM and NUJS visiting North Bengal tea gardens. A
study was carried out on the violation of the Plantation
Labour Act which led to the genesis of HRLAG (Human
Rights Legal Advocacy Group). This group is a student
body of NUJS who has partnered with CRY
What we did:
• Raised ‘public’ awareness and held discussions
on the Human Rights situation in North Bengal
tea plantations with particular reference to Child
Rights.
• Launched a movement oriented towards Did you know?
achieving observance of statutory and human
rights standards in tea plantations by the State
and tea estate owners, with particular demand One in 18 children die in
for guaranteeing ‘Minimum Wages’ for the the first year of life, and
labourers.
one in 13 die before their
• Organised an inter-college debate on Child 5th birthday.
Rights
• Made presentations to panels of opinion
makers, lawyers and editors.
Volunteer Speak:
“Volunteering with CRY has made me more aware and more sensitive towards
issues which were just names before. The kind of work we do with CRY, transforms
lives – those of the children we work for as well as our own.”
Surabhi Tandon
Student

10. Presidency College
Who we are:
A group 40 registered members out of which 10-12
members form the core group. Although it started as
a small group, soon, students from different
departments started approaching VA in individual
capacity to volunteer with CRY. The group (students
from various departments) began to take shape
under the leadership of a first year Sociology student
and a 3rd year History student
What we did:
• Intensive effort was made in collectivization Did you know?
and CRY chapter formation in college
• Through Intra College events such as Poster There are 164 million children
display, CRY Volunteer counter set up, in the age group of 0-6 years.
recruitments, film festival, CRY products 37 million children below the
display etc., mobilized more students and age of 3 are underweight,
institutionalized child rights within the while almost 50 per cent of
college. under-fives are moderately or
severely malnourished.
• Designed a questionnaire to assess the status
of municipal schools.
Volunteer Speak:
“No more a game for you and another for me. Let’s work together so that a new world,
a child friendly world, we get to see.”
Abhishek
Student

11. KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar
Who we are:
Another new endeavour that CRY undertook
in the East was in Orissa. The preliminary
talks were initiated with KIIT Law School
(KLS) in the beginning of the year. Law
Schools often are keen to take up human
rights issues and initiatives and hence after
some discussions and meetings, a CRY
student’s chapter was formed in the month of
September with faculties of the college, for
overall coordination
What we did:
• Orientation on Child Rights organised by
CRY
• We formed a CRY students chapter with Did you know?
over 50 members getting involved
• Went for field work to understand the 2010-11 budgets allocate
status of education in certain mere 4.63% of GDP for
communities. Conducting field work to children.
understand the status of education in
certain communities Assessing schools,
interacting with communities and
capturing experiences through
photographs and case studies
Volunteer Speak:
“I was really glad when CRY came to us with the idea of having a Child rights collective
in campus. Soon after the commencement of the CRY Chapter we went to quite a few
villages in Khurda district. It was an eye opener; I look forward to drawing in more
experiences and doing something meaningful to address these issues.”
Debangshu Dinda
Student

12. There are many people all around
who would like to do some in-depth
work on a certain child related theme
or put their focused interest or skill
to some meaningful engagement.
The aim of this initiative is to create
a public action group which is not
bound by an institution or
geography. The members are
primarily bound by an interest in an
issue or a specific skill.

13. Inclusive Education
Who we are:
“Campaigners for Inclusion” is a volunteer
initiative of CRY and Sruti disAbility Rights
Centre. It is a vibrant campaign initiated in the
year 2007 and has reached many a successful
milestones with volunteers from all walks of life.
It is a group of around 20 volunteers, advocating
and demanding an inclusive society for children
with disabilities.
What we did:
• Organized a rally to protest against the
Right to Education Bill which did not
include the rights of children with
disability.
• The report on inclusion was accepted by
NUJS as reference material.
Did you know?
• Also demanded new laws to have
separate sections for children with
disability and changes in the Copy right One in every four trafficked
Law in order to introduce the Braille victim is a child below the age
Books. of 16 years, more than half
• Distributed handbills on Right to Read (58.3%) belong to poor
and made posters on Inclusive Education. families.
Also started a Letter Campaign by
sending out letters to a set of 20 schools
principals to make them more aware of
this issue.
Volunteer Speak:
“In the ‘Change in Copyright Act’ Campaign, collecting signatures of different
visitors at the book fair, to make them aware of the fact that only 0.5% books
were available for print-disabled persons, was one of the most valuable
experiences for me!!!”
Moumita Chakrabarty
Student

14. Photo Collective – JUPC
Who we are:
CLICK RIGHTS – This Photography Initiative was
started along with CRY in the beginning of 2009.
In 2008 CRY envisioned a public initiative with
groups of (amateur) photographers to mobilize
opinion on child rights. The idea was to create
photo-enthusiasts collective through exhibitions
of photographs at different locations of the city
and also form public opinion. CRY explored
Jadavpur University Photographic Club to assess
potential for a tie-up.. This materialized and
there are now 40 members in the club taking
forward the idea under the Banner of “Click
Rights”.
What we did:
• CRY and JUPC arrived at some common
understanding and agreed upon certain
outcomes which was formalized by signing
an MoU Did you know?
• Capacity building sessions on child rights 25 % of all primary school-
going children drop out,
and photography were conducted by CRY between Grade I – V and
46% of all elementary
• We went around the city and clicked status school-going children, drop
of children viz a viz education and two out between Grade 1-VIII.
photo exhibitions were held. One in Topsia
and another one on the event of CRY’s
Sabko Shiksha Saman Shiksha Campaign
Volunteer Speak:
“Child Rights is not just about children in distress or children affected by poverty.
The violation of Child Rights is also a violation of basic Human Rights. In the core
it’s about making honest decisions for yourself and for your society too.”
Soumik Dutta
JUPC Member

15. News Tracking
Who we are:
CRY felt the importance of volunteers being able
to do issue analysis and news tracking in order
to strengthen the volunteer campaigns on child
rights and be abreast of latest media coverage
approach and trends. Hence this group was
formed. It is a group of 6 members comprising
of a corporate professional, homemaker, and
students from engineering and science research.
The approach to follow news closely with a
critical eye, read between the lines and identify
and probe into what has been omitted and what
has not and why.
What we did:
• Came up with an analytical report on
“Children in the media” covering the Did you know?
trends in three leading Dailies
More than half (54 percent)
• News tracking was done on an ongoing of all deaths before age five
basis for 4 leading dailies. years in India are related to
• Regular tracking of four leading dailies malnutrition.
and sharing latest relevant news
periodically over mail and volunteer blog
to enrich volunteer perspectives and
work
Volunteer Speak:
“Children are the backbone of any society. When I decided to do something for the
society I chose CRY over any other NGO for this obvious reason. Working with CRY
has been a fulfilling experience for me. CRY has given me the opportunity to
interact with people from diverse backgrounds who have come together for this
noble cause.”
Sourav Guha
Corporate Professional

16. This is an initiative to mobilize
‘public’ in wards such that they
engage with people’s issues to
build pressure collectively on the
local governance. Simultaneously,
it also works on building capacity
and in challenging public
convictions and beliefs with regard
to rights of the marginalized. The
initiative also focuses on the
establishment of formal ‘Child
Rights watch group’ in each ward,
consisting of Public and the People.

17. Topsia, Right to Education Campaign
Who we are:
A group of volunteers comprising of a mix of
members of SAKET (an educational Trust) and a
few college students. Our active group
comprises of 8-10 people.
The campaign aims to address the right to
education issue of the children of Topsia to
ensure that there are adequate numbers and
quality schools in the area and children are able
to enjoy their right to development. This is
being done through fact finding studies,
surveys, filing RTIs, Public consultations etc
What we did:
•A public consultation done with
residents on status of schools in
Topsia
• Along with JUPC CRY Volunteer group, Did you know?
a photo exhibition was held in a
public ground in Topsia on Right to
Education in the month of November 25% of Muslim children in
the 6-14 year age group
• 3 articles were written and published have either never attended
on issues of discrimination, drop outs, school or have dropped
and on infrastructural problems, out.
through the lens of unresponsive
education system
• Drafted a booklet on this initiative with
mention of further options for
volunteer engagement
Volunteer Speak:
“While working in Topsia, I noticed gross violation of right to education there. CRY
is taking firm steps to ensure that the government implements right to education
there and I feel happy getting the opportunity to contribute by being part of field
level initiatives!”
Shaunak Ghosh
Student

18. Initiative with Para clubs
Who we are:
A diverse group comprising long time residents of
a locality, youth studying in colleges or those
who have completed high school. It’s the people
who are very passionate about their para
(neighborhood/ locality) and focus on addressing
immediate problems that impact status of
children. The group is formed by about 2-3
representatives from each club which combined
makes the total representation of around 14-15
youths.
Most of the volunteers have undergone various
trainings and been involved in projects with
Thoughtshop Foundation. The efforts are focused
on 6 paras which are all different in nature and
composition with impetus on right based
approach and long term advocacy.
Did you know?
What we did:
• Underwent series of seven Capacity Less than 44% of children,
Building sessions on child rights, 12-23 months, are fully
advocacy, issue analysis etc. vaccinated against the 6
major childhood illnesses.
• Conducting composition and community
mapping of each Para was done.
• Conducting de-briefing sessions and
discussing areas of future intervention
Volunteer Speak:
"Working with CRY has been a very revealing and enriching experience. I
realized that there are many small things also that can easily be done to
contribute to child rights. Yes, what is needed is a bit of sensitivity and
willingness to do something worthwhile."
Nitish Khanna
Student

19. The Internship Programme at CRY is
a structured programme with
Professional Institutes to strengthen
the collaboration between CRY &
Professional/ Academic institutes in
the field of Child Rights. Over the
last few years the Volunteer Action
team saw a gradual increase in the
number and diversity of students
joining and their contribution to VA’s
campaigns and Child Rights activism
at large.

20. The Internship Programme
Who we are:
The internship programme in CRY is recognised
as a stepping stone for a long term relationship
between CRY and the interns, as well as their
institutions. About 100 intern applications are
processed every year out of which an average
of 30 interns per year are absorbed in
individual or group assignments. The Interns
are students from diverse walks of life with
their profiles ranging from law and social
sciences to media and management.
What we did:
• Twenty five students from 14 different
Institutes of India interned with CRY Kolkata
• Contributed and value added to CRY
Volunteer Campaigns and plans for the year.
Reports covered the themes of Education as
a fundamental right through the eyes of Did you know?
parents, status of rag pickers in Kolkata,
One in every four trafficked
squatter settlements and condition of victim is a child below the
children in Kolkata, Print media and children, age of 16 years, more than
options of Volunteer involvement and action half (58.3%) belong to
poor families.
etc..
• A short film titled “Our Place in the Sun
too” was made on children’s perceptions and
concerns on education. The film was
screened in many places and received wide
spread appreciation
Volunteer Speak:
“My experience with CRY has been a wonderful mixture of different emotions…I
had a very narrow view of the world, but after doing this internship, I left with
an open mind, and more importantly, an open heart. What I have learnt from
CRY is that everybody has a right to a dream, and every attempt, no matter
how seemingly insignificant, makes a difference.”
Chanakya Hridaya
Student

21. Also Did...
Volunteer Speak:
“It has been an amazing
experience while
volunteering with CRY. I
have learnt , grown,
campaigned, organized,
enjoyed, clicked, created
and realized how
extremely lucky I am.
Thank you everyone for
being there!”
Rashmila Maiti
Content developer
• In the month of June 2009, we went
around the city creating public
awareness on the extent of damage
caused by the cyclone Aila and raised
resources to reach out to the affected
communities in Sunderban
• Created a vibrant online blog for child Volunteer Speak:
right enthusiasts http://
crycampaignerseast.blogspot.com/ to “My association with CRY,
encourage discussion and promote the past one year, has
public action on child rights and given a new meaning to my
create a common platform to bring life ...To realize that so
together various volunteer east much more can be done for
initiatives children and their rights,
makes me want to keep
• Sabko Shiksha Saman Shiksha doing my bit in whatever
campaign of CRY created visibility little manner possible.”
and made an impact through
submission of signed charter of Saptaparna Bhattacharya
demands and cross country Homemaker
programmes on right to education.
Volunteers played an active part in
garnering signatures from public, and
were proactively supporting in
organizing a collage of events in
Kolkata.

22. CALL FOR ACTION:
Over the last few years CRY volunteers have been
involved in several initiatives and have achieved a
lot. However, there is still a lot to be done. We are
always looking for more people who believe in the
cause CRY stands for, irrespective of who they are,
what they do and the kind of skills they possess.
So we appeal to people who have read this book
and feel that they could contribute in any way, big
or small, as part of an Institute, a campaign or
even individually to come forward and join us. In
our endeavor to make a difference, to bring about
a change we look forward to the support of our
volunteers both old and new. Just as every droplet
makes an ocean, every volunteer makes us
stronger!
So, be a CRY Volunteer and stand up for what
is RIGHT!!!

23. For more details:
CRY Kolkata
152, Kalikapur, Gitanjali Park
(New No. 8, 2nd Street),
Kolkata-700099
Tel: +91-33-2416 9507 / 2772
Diya Deb (diya.deb@crymail.org)
Anupama Muhuri (anupama.muhuri@crymail.org)