Child Rights and You (CRY), the non-profit organisation, was set up in 1979 to restore basic child rights — of survival, development, protection and participation. Over the years, it has worked with grassroots NGOs, and today mobilises public opinion in support of child rights. But, it's not easy, says CRY's CEO Puja Merwaha.
Puja joined CRY in 1994, and moved to South Africa nine years later. During her stay there, she taught young children for a small NGO working on education and AIDS. “I understood the magnitude of HIV / AIDS, and witnessed its profound effect on children. I gleaned a better understanding of volunteering too. These experiences coupled with those from my years at CRY prior to the move, confirmed my belief that the challenges faced by underprivileged children across the world arise from denial of rights.”
CRY provides financial support to start-up initiatives that are not self-sufficient. That ends once the organisation is able to operate on its own. CRY's key focus is on education and mobilisation of adult communities to ensure that children are safe, in school, and learning well. This is, perhaps, most critical, as Puja points out.
Laying stress on the relation among the key deprivations, she says that one cannot merely ‘solve' a problem while leaving the others untouched. “For example, our observations that large numbers of children in particular areas are pulled in as child labourers correspond to the poor quality schools in the same area. The two problems are related, as poor quality schools ‘push out' children into labour.”
Taking care of children
She asserted that India must take care of children because they are children — and because they are also citizens. “Children are not, and should never be seen as a resource. We, as a nation, cannot ignore our children and their rights to basic amenities, nor can we leave them behind to lead lives of large-scale malnourishment, trapped within the cycle of poverty, under-education and exploitation. Those in extreme poverty should be assisted by government schemes, so that they don't become child labourers.”
About India's public education system, she says: “Many children can't go to school simply because there isn't one to go to. The real picture is substantially dire — Government schools lose 25 per cent of their students by Class V, and almost half (46 per cent) by Class VIII.”
The Right to Education Act actually omits half of India's children, she says. Also, the government hopes to make up for the lack of free, quality schools by mandating a 25 per cent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools. There's also the vague mention of large financial resources needed to make sure every child in India, rich or poor, gets free quality education, which leaves the decision at the discretion of the Central and State governments.
India has one of the largest child populations in the world, yet children are not its biggest priority. Reason why the likes of CRY do not get enough support — voices or funds. However, Puja believes patience is the key to any sort of change. Till then, “be involved, be aware, and take action for children, now”.
