When was the last time you took a postcard seriously?

MANORATH - We Voice Rights for All Children

About CRY

For over 30 years now, CRY – Child Rights and You has worked on the reasons why children are deprived of rights. Every year, CRY together with 200 partner NGOs across 18 states works to address the root causes of exploitation, deprivation and inadequate livelihood options that constrain the rights of children. This collective action permanently changes the lives of over 6 lakh children in 6700 villages and slums each year, who live learn and grow well. None of these micro-miracles would have been possible without public support – every year, 2 lakh individuals, come together from all walks of life to stand up for their belief in the rights of children.

CRY’s mission is to enable people to take responsibility for the situation of the deprived Indian child. We motivate people to confront the situation through collective action thereby giving children and themselves an opportunity to realize their full potential.

Manorath is one such Volunteers group with CRY which through its endeavors is voicing Rights for all children.

Manorath is a group of volunteers with Child Rights & You (CRY). Manorath members see themselves as campaigners for change. Our first campaign focuses on the right to educationfor all children in the NCR region. Manorath sees it growing as a movement to ensure every child the right to childhood.

RTE Campaign Mission:~To ensure that every child in India gets free compulsory n& quality education.
~To ensure state responsibility and accountability to provide free, compulsory, equitable and quality education to all children through public system of education.

RTE Campaign Objectives:~Create public opinion of RTE
~Mobilise the citizens of India to stand up for RTE
~Demand that state implements a common school system
~Ensure that educational institutes are equipped with holistic development of every child.

RTE Action Plan:~Capacity building as a collective : Enabling ourselves to lectures, discussions, readings and focused group discussion and forming study group on child rights
~Conducting research survey audits and document findings to enhance knowledge on RTE.
~Filing of Public interest litigation (PILs) and Right to education (RTIs) as and when required.
~Participating and organizing rallies, protests demand charters, workshops, seminars and conferences on RTE

To Join Manorath
Email : ManorathC4C@gmail.com OR
Call Amit Aggarwal +91-9717277599

Thursday, October 7, 2010

When was the last time you took a postcard seriously?

While deciding for a campaign, always be flexible as it might be that you would have to change your approach.Example : Dwarka postcard campaign. Initially it was decided that we would go for RTE campaign and target 25% reservation for EWSchildren in private schools. But after initial surveys we realised that first the government schools need to be disciplined.More than 50 households were surveyed in the Bharat vihar colony, Dwarka. Since there were Nagar Nigam and Rajkiya Sarvodaya school in the nearby area, so the survey had questions concerning government schools in the area as well. While going through the surveys it became apparent that locals were more interested in issues concerning government schools.What also compelled us to shift our focus was the apprehension that locals had for private schools.Since the RTE was implemented this year only and it was not binding on private schools to accomodate all the provisions in the Bill,we decided to shift our focus from private to governement schools. Once clear in our approach ,the volunteers started visiting Nagar nigam schools in the area.Soon we realised that we were right in shifting the focus as issues ranging from makeshifttent classrooms to corporal punishment to unhygenic washrooms,came forth.
Leading upto the campaign was an extensive awarness campaign and eventually we ended up with 70 odd postcards from children.With help from jurist Ashok aggarwal, we took the issue to the Delhi government through the postcard campaign. A bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan (Delhi High court) converted the postcards sent by these students into a public interest litigation (PIL) saying "it is a serious matter'' since it highlighted the shortcomings in implementation of the recently enacted Right to Education Act and sought a reply from the MCD and Delhi government by August 18.
A final word of advice: Do not worry about the legal hurdles that might come up once the issues (Child Rights) are raised.Since its easier to tackle government bodies than it seems. RTI (though we didnt use it), local activists and little persuasion are all thats required.

(This article is by Dhruv Anand, one of the lead volunteers of Adhikaar - a CRY Dwarka group. The postcard campaign was highly successful. And that is an understatement.)

MANORATH - We Voice Rights for All Children

Thursday, October 7, 2010