Child Rights and You: A step towards making children smile
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interview

  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • March 17, 2020

Child Rights and You: A step towards making children smile

CRY – Child Rights and You is an
Indian NGO that believes in every child’s right to a childhood – to live,
learn, grow and play. For over 4 decades, CRY and its 850 initiatives have
worked with parents and communities to ensure Lasting Change in the lives of
more than 3,000,000 underprivileged children, across 19 states in India

Could you tell us the primary motto of your NGO?

CRY’s purpose is to ensure happy and healthy childhoods for
underprivileged Indian children. To ensure their rights are protected and
honoured in a society that is built on respect for dignity, justice, and equity
for all. 

Our mission is to enable people to take responsibility for the
situation of the deprived Indian child and motivate them to seek resolution
through individual and collective action, thereby enabling children to realise
their full potential. And people to discover their potential for action and
change.

What are the programs you undertake to ensure child rights and
welfare?

In terms of our work, we are proud of our unwavering focus on
reaching “the last child” –i.e. the most marginalised children. We work with
children in remote, rural areas, children in conflict zones and urban slums or
backward communities. It is our experience that in situations of extreme
deprivation and struggle for the entire community, it is always children who
are the most vulnerable and neglected. Hence, our interventions address the
root causes of inequity and deficits to ensure that children have a healthy
life, a chance at a proper education, a space to be heard and a safe and secure
environment to grow up in. 

What is the most common issue adversely impacting kids across the
country today? How does your organization aspire to tackle the same?

Access to basic education for many children across the country
continues to be a challenge even today. Even though the number of enrolments in
schools have increased, a section of both boys and girls, especially those between
the ages of 14 to 18 years are compelled to drop-out of schools only to end up
working as child labour across various industries including that of agriculture
or to get married.  

There are also multiple challenges in terms of addressing issues
of malnutrition. To address the multiple issues that confront children today,
CRY’s interventions focus on the following: 

  • Building an agency for children
  • Provision of interim services to meet the immediate and critical needs of children e.g. providing non-formal education or support classes to school drop-outs
  • Influencing knowledge, attitudes, and practices of parents that impinge on children’s rights e.g. superstitions detrimental to breastfeeding practices or attitudes that keep girls out of school
  • Mobilisation and empowerment of underprivileged communities to increase engagement on children’s issues
  • Capacity building of service providers, e.g. teachers, to ensure delivery of quality services
  • Creation or participation in networks and alliances to enable child-friendly policies

Furthermore, our broad-based experience on the ground along with
our efforts in the policy and research arena has given us a unique perspective
on both the micro and macro-level influences on children’s issues. This has
enabled us to create sustainable and replicable models of intervention. 

Do you receive CSR funds? What forms are the primary source of
monetary assistance for your organisation?

Our primary source of funds is individual donations. 
However, we do receive CSR funds, and some of our corporate funders have
included large MNCs like P&G and Oracle, as well as prominent Indian
companies like Hero, Bajaj, and Marico.  

Do you think CSR implementation has been smooth in the country
till now? How could it be enhanced? 

India has a unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) provision
under the Indian Companies Act 2013, which mandates CSR for any company meeting
certain profit, turnover or net-worth criteria.

While the CSR clause is a breakthrough initiative in the CSR arena,
there are some limitations to the clause which need to be debated and
addressed, namely: 

A mandatory CSR spend can result in an increase in the focus on
quantifying CSR vs. a qualitative assessment of what makes strategic sense for
the company. It also runs the risk of diluting the attention on how companies
make their profit rather than focusing on how they spend their profit. CSR has
to be strategic and linked to the business. 

The Act recommends that the company shall give preference to the
local areas around where it operates. This may result in skewed resource
allocation as most business houses and manufacturing facilities are located in
developed states while the resource requirement is more in the under-developed
states where industrial presence is limited. 

The Act also encourages companies to implement their CSR
activities by establishing their own trusts/societies. However, social and
development issues are often complex and local civil society organisations are
likely to be better equipped to understand these unique issues and offer
solutions for the same. In addition, many of these civil society organisations
operate from the larger framework of social justice and not just on a project
or activity basis.  Therefore, partnering with such organisations will
enable bringing in the aspect of social sustainability into the CSR
strategy. 

The clause does not address core business impacts as set out by
the guidelines developed by the Government itself and the state’s duties in
line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights which India
endorsed in 2011.

In addition to some of the limitations in the law itself, there is
a lack of a unified view on CSR, which includes lack of clarity on the
definition of CSR, its agenda, actions, and reporting. The question for
corporations and CSR practitioners is how to craft CSR strategies that reflect
a company’s business values while addressing social, humanitarian and
environmental challenges.

A few key elements to be considered are given below: 

  • Integration of
    responsibility within the long term objectives of the organization. It’s
    aligned with the vision and mission of the organization.
  • Structure and
    role definition: Who within the company is responsible for crafting and
    driving CSR strategy and implementation?
  • Stakeholders:
    Which different stakeholders will the CSR strategy involve, influence and
    impact? 
  • Clear
    objectives and programme design
  • Communication
    – internal and external for synergy, adoption, and extension of agenda
  • Reviewing
    mechanism – a measurement of impact and reporting 

About Kreeanne Rabadi:

A post-graduate diploma holder in Early Childhood Care &
Education (ECCE) from Sophia College Polytechnic, Kreeanne Rabadi began her
career at ORG-MARG designing market research projects for children. She was
with the company for six years, conducting qualitative and quantitative
research for a diverse set of clients – MTV, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej Foods,
etc. 

She joined CRY-Child Rights and You in 2000 to
lead the Resource Generation team in the Western region. Kreeanne spent five
years with CRY in India, enabling her team to consistently exceed its revenue
targets. In 2005, she was assigned the challenge of setting up the marketing
function for CRY America, for which she moved to the US.

By: Abdullah

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  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • December 19, 2019

Bhartiyam: Inching closer towards sustainable environment

Bhartiyam, a not for profit entity was founded in 2016. Working on the issues of underprivileged sections especially women and children, Mr Rajeev Kumar, Founder, Bhartiyam also collaborated with like-minded individuals to work towards environmental sustainability through its flagship programme Mission100CroreTrees. He shares the goals of the organization in conversation with Abdullah

What is the focus of your NGO ‘Bhartiyam’?

Bhartiyam registered under the
Income Tax Act 80 G strives to promote financial self- sufficiency
of women through economic development. Our mission is to address
specific needs of women such as education, health care, and income
generation within the broad development framework. Besides working on Welfare
of women we also work for the cause of underprivileged ones through food and
clothes distribution campaigns.

Rajeev Kumar

Focusing on sustainable environment,
we also a have team of dedicated environmentalist bearing the torch of our
flagship programme ‘Mission100croretrees.’

Could
you elaborate on the mission of your flagship programme ‘Mission 100 crore
trees’?

Mission100croretrees
team aims to save the environment by planting trees to reduce pollution.
Besides, river cleaning has been at the forefront of our agenda so as to avert
further deterioration of water bodies. Through our plantation and clean river
campaigns, we have ensured that a good number of people are sensitised and
motivated towards environment and sustainable development.

How
do you acquire funds to run campaigns like ‘Mission 100 crore Trees’?  Have you sought any assistance from any govt
institution/ Corporate Houses?

Our team Mission100croretrees is
fully volunteer-based.  We don’t seek any direct monetary assistance from
any corporate house but we do collaboration with private companies such as
Pimcore, Noida for events and workshops on environmental sustainability and
plantation drives. The expenses incurred while undertaking such events are
borne by the private firms.

What
are the challenges you confront while undertaking afforestation drives? How do
you tackle them?                             

The biggest challenge is maintaining the trees post plantation like watering, protection from any kind of damage. We don’t get any support from the Govt. on this front. We manage on our own or seek help from locals to take care of the trees.

In the Fiscal Year 2017-18, total CSR expenditure on Environment, Animal Welfare and Conservation of Resources was estimated to be around 1361 crore. Do you think its ample amount spent towards environmental sustainability? What else could be done for sustainable development?

The corpus fund of Rs 1361 crore is a sufficient amount for environment if it is wisely spent on planning and execution to have visible changes in the environment sustainability. A good part of the amount should be doled out for awareness campaigns motivating people from semi urban areas and rural areas to join the cause of environment so as to make sustainable development a reality.

About Rajeev Kumar: Rajeev Kumar, founder of Bhartiyam, is a Digital Marketing Professional hails from Bihar, moved to Delhi about 10 years ago and was shocked to see the pace of city’s green cover area vanishing. Due to his love for nature, Rajeev soon started planting trees across the city during the weekends. In the span of three years he has planted over 35,000 saplings all over Delhi-NCR.

By: abdulla@kazisoftwaresolutions.com

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  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • August 18, 2019

In Conversation With: Dr. Shah Kamranur Rahman, LSHTM, London, Founder, SeedingSTEM

Spilling the Pearls of Wisdom

SeedingSTEM founded with an aim to fill the information deficit in the educational sector has grown significantly. With 35 International chapters across Europe, the Middle East, US, Australia and Asia, it has garnered support from the who’s who of academics and educational institutions. Dr. Shah Kamranur Rahman, LSHTM, London. Founder,  SeedingSTEM shares the journey of the institution from inception to way forward. 

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  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • July 21, 2019

In Conversation With: Umesh Agarwal, Secretary, RYACosmo Foundation

Empowering women will change the society for good, says Umesh Agarwal, Secretary, RYACosmo Foundation.

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • June 18, 2019

In Conversation With: Devendra Kumar Gupta, Founder & CEO, Ladli Foundation Trust

90% of women health issues are linked to menstrual hygiene, and educating them about it would be the real empowerment, says Devendra Kumar Gupta Founder & CEO – Ladli Foundation Trust

 

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  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • April 26, 2019

Women STEM Enrolment in India: Challenges and Opportunities

“It’s the collective responsibility of government, NGOs, institutions and society to promote girl’s STEM education,” says Sonal Kapoor, Founder Director, Protsahan

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • April 11, 2019

“Education and Economic Empowerment of Muslims in India is the ultimate goal of AMP,” – Mr Aamir Edresy, Founder, AMP

“Education and Economic Empowerment of Muslims in India is the ultimate goal of AMP,” says Mr Aamir Edresy, Founder, Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP). He discusses the focus and agenda for AMP in conversation with Arshia Khan

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • January 15, 2019

In Conversation With: T Arif Ali, General Secretary, Human Welfare Foundation

“Three out of ten Urban Muslims are poor i.e. officially come below the poverty line living on a monthly income of Rs 550 and less,” highlights, T Arif Ali, General Secretary, Human Welfare Foundation (HWF). He discusses in detail about the activities of HWF which is working towards the upliftment of the poor irrespective of their caste, religion and race.     

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  • Admin
  • interview
  • January 15, 2019

In Conversation With – Mr Shahid Aboobacker, Trustee, Rehab India Foundation

“There are at least 31 lakh registered NGOs — more than double the number of schools in the country, 250 times the number of government hospitals, one NGO for 400 people as against one policeman for 709 people,”… says Shahid Aboobacker, Trustee, Rehab India Foundation quoting a 2015 CBI report. He highlights the impact and discusses the vision of the Foundation in an e-interaction with Arshia Khan

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