CRY takes innovative route to launch'Project Unlearn'

India's leading child rights organisation CRY (Child Rights and You) has launched an initiative to pull 28,588 children across India out of child labour.'Project Unlearn' is about children who are forced to learn much more than they should at their age because of circumstances that stop them from going to school and learning what they really should. With this project, the organisation aims to pull children out of these circumstances and put them into schools.

To spread awareness and to generate funds for this initiative, CRY installed a child's face at Cyber Hub, Gurgaon with more than 2200 chai glasses. Every Rs 200 donated towards the Project Unlearn enabled the donor to physically remove one glass from the face and thereby revealing a part of the child's face. When all the chai glasses were removed, a face of a happy child became visible.

At 440 million, India has one of the world's largest populations of children. However, over 17 million of these children work for a living. These children work for long hours, under pitiable conditions for meagre wages, forgoing their health, education and the basic right to have a happy childhood.

Along with this,'Project Unlearn' encompasses various other events and interactive activities across the country. These include innovative installations in major cities, street plays, flash mobs and exhibitions.

Puja Marwaha, CEO, CRY, said, "As shocking as it may seem, India is home to millions of children in labour who are forced to work at an age when they should be in classrooms. With minimum wages, long working hours, suffering abuse and exploitation, these children are deprived of their basic rights. With'Project Unlearn' we aim to spread awareness about this issue and shake people out of their indifference towards this grim reality that India faces. We are hopeful the people will extend their support to us in ensuring that these children get out of the clutches of child labour and unlearn the skills that rob them of their childhood.”