Lack of hygiene, dimly-lit classrooms, broken chairs and benches, children cramped in classrooms or sitting on the floor… — though amateurs, the photographers managed to capture the essence of the campaign.
CRY — Child Rights and You — recently launched ‘Click Rights', a campaign exhibition of citizen photojournalism that captured how children in government schools were denied their right to education.
CRY invited the public and volunteers to take photographs of government schools in their localities that lacked basic infrastructure, and received over 500 entries.
Exhibitions were held in five metropolitan cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai — where the pictures were shot.
In the city, the exhibitions were held in December at PVR Cinema, Ampa Mall, and December, the photography exhibition was organised at Ashvita on Radhakrishna Salai, Mylapore.
Signature campaign
As many as 16 volunteers were part of the exhibition and a ‘signature campaign' that sought to draw attention to the cause.
Passion and a cause
Gurunathan, a volunteer, says: “The campaign aims at helping the children through photography.”
Another volunteer, Kalanidhi, also a web developer, says: “Photography is my passion. And, this campaign gave me an opportunity to showcase a social issue through what I do best.”
Bringing about change
Diya, manager, volunteer of action, CRY, Chennai, says: “Through this initiative, our volunteers — who come from diverse backgrounds, strive to bring about a change in the life of underprivileged children.”
The photographs will be used in CRY's national, regional and local-level advocacy plans.
An exhibition of the entries from across the country can be seen on www.cry.org/microsite/clickrights/index.htmlhttp://www.cry.org/microsite/clickrights/index.html.
