Child rights and you (cry)

               CRY is one of the well known non - profit organization in India. In 1979 Rippan and 6 friends started CRY with Rs. 50/ around his mother's dining table. They felt that something needed to be done to improve the situation of the underprivileged Indian child.  They opted instead to make CRY a link between the millions of Indians who could provide resources and thousands of dedicated people and organizations at the grassroots-level who are struggling to function for lack of them.

            All through the early, difficult years, it was Rippan's passion and conviction that drove CRY. He was firmly convinced that each of us can help, in our own small way, be agents of change, and when enough of us are moved to this, the impact is a lasting change for the better. Way back in the 1970s, Rippan  Kapur a young airline purser, was driven by the extraordinary dream to see a day when no Indian child would be deprived of rights as basic as survival, participation, protection and development.

          Like many of us, Rippan too was upset when he saw disparities between privileged and underprivileged children. He hated to see children begging and working as servants. Unlike most of us though, he did something about it.

        Mission of CRY to enable people to take responsibility for the situation of the deprived Indian child and so motivate them to seek resolution through individual and collective action thereby enabling children to realize their full potential. Over the year cry has initiated launched and organized campaigns to amplify the voice of children and   their rights.

     The districts in the Marathwada region in Maharashtra are among India's poorest districts. The land is drought-prone; farming is not easy. Many farmers end up taking loans at high interest rates. The resultant high costs of farming and failed crops force many people to migrate in search of work. Social Institute Programmes Rural Areas (SIPRA) initiated a journey of change in 62 villages that transformed the lives of children and their families. SIPRA began by taking on the region’s most crippling issues – illiteracy and alcoholism. Through a series of interventions SIPRA mobilized the villagers to stand up for themselves. Today, the women of Himayatnagar are confident about stepping out of their traditional, repressed roles to stop alcoholism. In this way CRY helping to the children’s in their own way.

                                                                          Supriya MACJ