Kolkata, 1st December, 2011: CRY – Child Rights and You announces the launch of Click Rights – a campaign aimed at using the medium of photography to raise awareness on issues related to the lack of quality infrastructure in government/municipal schools. Citizens are invited to click photographs of government/municipal schools in their areas that are lacking basic infrastructure guaranteed to all children in India by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Short-listed pictures will be exhibited online, as well as in public spaces across 5 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The pictures will also be utilised in CRY’s advocacy for better quality education with the local authorities, as well as with advocacy at the national and state level.
Speaking about the campaign, Yogita Verma, Director, Volunteer Action, CRY says, “Click Rights is a unique volunteer initiative by CRY that brings together people who share a commitment to the rights of children and a passion for photography. Almost three years have passed since the Right to Education Act was passed, yet quality education remains a distant dream for most children. The Click Rights initiative aims to raise public awareness about this, and demand that the state and central governments ensure this right to all children. Participants will have the opportunity to show their support for every child’s right to quality education by photographically capturing schools that, for example, have no classrooms or toilets or a roof. The idea is to showcase the need for better infrastructure in government schools, so that every child can have a better learning experience.”
Citizens participating in the Click Rights initiative will need to upload their pictures on the CRY Click Rights Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/clickrights. Short-listed pictures will be displayed at Click Rights exhibitions in the main metro cities on 17th – 18th December, 2011. An online exhibition of all the entries across the country will be available on http://www.cry.org/microsite/clickrights/index.html. The pictures will then be used in CRY’s national, regional and local-level advocacy plans as follows:
- With local authorities: A delegation from CRY will share details of the schools under their jurisdiction that need improvement
- At the State level: A delegation from CRY will submit a detailed report with details of all the schools that need change in the region to the Chief Minister
- At the National level: CRY will send a report detailing the schools that need change to the Prime Minister.