TOPIC - Child

Relief and You-Cry

Foundation (India)

SUBMITTED By:
Mannat Sarao
Reg no-11614590
Section-L1601

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 INDEX

SR. NO. PARTICULARS Page No.

1. Genesis and Origin 4

2. The Founders: Their Motivations and Impact 5

3. CRY Mission and Vision: A Situational Response 7

4. Program Operation and Evolution 8

5. Evolution of Program Targets 9

6. Nonfinancial Support 9

7. Networking 10

8. Financing CRY 11

9. Cry Today 12

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In our assignment, I had to take the help and guideline of some respected persons, who
deserve our greatest gratitude. The completion of this assignment gives us much Pleasure.
We would like to show our gratitude Miss.Bhavyya Sharma Mam for giving us a good
guideline for assignment throughout numerous consultations.
We would also like to expand our deepest gratitude to all those who have directly and
indirectly guided us in writing this assignment.
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals.I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
I came to know about so many new things I am really thankful to them. Secondly i would
also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this assignment
within the limited time frame.

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 GENESIS AND ORIGIN
Despite considerable achievements since attaining independence in 1947, India still faces vast
development challenges that adversely affect a large proportion of the population, especially
children. Child Relief and You (CRY), founded in 1979, is an independent trust dedicated to
the cause of deprived Indian children. CRY tries to provide a future for these children
through their basic rights to food, shelter, health and education. CRY has evolved dynamic
strategies to enable underprivileged children to realize their potential, and estimates it has
helped 650,000 children. CRY originated through the efforts of a single individual, founder
Rippan Kapur, whose anguish over the situation of underprivileged Indian children translated
into a drive to redress this issue. His conviction that generous indigenous support can be
harvested and channeled to development partners to achieve CRY objectives has been
corroborated by experience. The programs that CRY supports through funding implementing
nongovernmental and community-based organizations were focused initially on relief and
specific project assistance. Today, program support is comprehensive and multi-sectoral, with
a social development orientation. Issue-based advocacy, institutional and project partner
networking, and social entrepreneurship development, are supplementary strategies. CRY’s
formal governance structure, initially viewed only as a legal necessity, became more
operationally focused as the organization grew. At times, Trustees’ and managers’ roles
blurred and overlapped, with some individuals playing multiple roles. After 1989, by design,
the governance functions became policy focused and supported the implementation of an
approved long-range operational strategy. In a similar vein, at operational levels, there has
been pressure to shift from volunteers to a paid professional and qualified staff. Since its
inception, CRY has generated substantial resources through the sale of greeting cards and
related paper products, and through donations solicited from individuals, groups, and
corporations. Product sales and potential donorbase considerations have influenced decisions
on expansion to metropolitan areas beyond Bombay. Targets have been achieved through a
combination of professional social marketing approaches and organizational transparency.
CRY’s resource base extends beyond donations in cash or kind and revenue from product
sales to substantive and varied voluntary personal services.1

CRY’s life span has embraced four development phases:

• 1979-1981, genesis and path-finding;

1
CRY, All About CRY, Child Relief & You 1994-95. Orientation brief.

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• 1982-1990, expansion and diversification;

• 1991-1993 long term strategy and consolidation; and

• 1994 - the present, “taking CRY forward,” following the death of its founder in 1994.2

THE FOUNDERS: THEIR MOTIVATIONS AND IMPACT

Founder Kapur’s social commitment developed during his childhood in Bombay. His mother,
involved in social work for destitute girls, was a great source of inspiration, support, and strength. In
school, he was active in the social service club, reading to the blind and visiting children in hospitals.
Later, as President of a school club, he organized literacy classes for children at a slum. In 1971, the
year Kapur graduated from high school, he and some friends organized “Instant Karma I,” a rock
show in which the musicians played for free to raise funds for children. He continued his social work
through university. In 1976, the first year of his professional life, he set up “For my Children’s
Children,” a short-lived predecessor to CRY, which closed down due to lack of funds.3

In mid-1978, with a small group of friends, he began to plan CRY. Regina Thomas, now Branch
Manager for CRY in Bangalore, recalls the intense discussions around Kapur’s mother’s dining table.
She remembers that friends presented ideas, and Rippan assumed responsibility to implement plans
as they evolved.

The founders were not inducted on the basis of specific sector or interest group representation.
“Rippan inspired confidence in people...he empowered people...he would stress that nothing is
impossible,” says Thomas. CRY founding members were friends who identified with Kapur’s cause
and provided the legal base to start his life’s work, literally, a “dining room” cabinet!

These founders were middle-class Indians of varied professions and religious persuasions — a
composition that is represented in the Board of Trustees even today. Kapur and six friends, the
minimum required by Indian law to register a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860,
each contributed Rs.7.00 (US$ 1.00 at the time) and signed a Memorandum of Association to form
the Child Relief and You Society on November 27, 1978. The organization was officially registered on
January 28, 1979, with an operating base of Rs. 50, and was also registered as a Trust under the
Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. The rationale for this dual registration — as a society and a trust —
related to the general legal environment, as well as the country’srecent emergence from the
ignominy of national “emergency” rule, as a result of which nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
were particularly concerned about ensuring autonomy of their management. The Societies

2
Annual Report 1992-93
3
Audited Accounts 1993-94. Before submission to, and approval by Trustees.

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Registration Act enables the formation of societies by groups of individuals for research, trust,
professional, health, educational and development purposes. These societies may benefit from tax
and other concessions, generally by conducting their affairs in conformity with the registered
Memorandum of Association and Bylaws/Rules and Regulations. One disadvantage, however, is that
this act provides for a “general membership body” to which any individual subscribing to the aims of
the organization can apply, and governing Board members are to be appointed by the general body.
This held the risk that the orientation of the organization could alter and that, with increases in
membership, the number of inactive members would also grow.4

Thus, being established in Bombay, CRY also found it advantageous also to register as a charitable
trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. Under these provisos, Trustees have more autonomy
than their counterparts in Societies. The organization and its supporters have benefited through tax
law and other concessions, that include sales and income tax exemptions, reduced rentals,
government cooperation, and the ability to accept foreign currency donations. At that juncture, four
persons were on both the CRY Society and CRY Trust founding member lists: Rippan Kapur, Jayne
Michael, Gulshan Ukaji, and Noshirwan Jehangir.

It is notable that, by September 1982, the end of the organization’s genesis and path-finding phase,
all Trustees but Kapur had resigned.5 Varied explanations are provided for resignations ofCRY
founding members — relocations because of job change, marriage and family responsibilities.
However, it is also apparent that some Trustees were disconcerted by the spontaneity, pace, scale,
and implicit financial risk of Kapur’s plans. Amita Kapur, the founder’s sister-in-law who is now CRY
President, says of Rippan, “It was his life force that went into CRY, and in turn CRY became his life.”
His school friend and current Trustee, Ratan Batliboi, recalls Rippan’s total absorption with CRY
activities between his work assignments as a flight purser with Air India, the Indian international air
carrier. Establishing and energizing CRY were the main achievements of the founder and early
Trustees. This was achieved through:

• Awareness building, mobilizing commitment, and fundraising (with two initial campaigns);

• Networking and exploring project partnerships; and

• Maintaining mandatory legal requirements of the Registered Societies Act, 1860, and Bombay
Public Trust Act, 1950.

4
Summary of Joint Project Formulation between Child Relief & You and Stromme
5
The Art of Giving, Vol. I, No.3, 1994

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The organization’s value system is rooted in the founding Trustees’ personal values, which
emphasized personal accountability and commitment; tenacity and personal sacrifice; approaches
that were diverse, flexible and included risk; and an acceptance of the Indian dichotomy of extreme
affluence and extreme poverty, social privilege and disadvantage, and the special challenges those
pose to development.

CRY MISSION AND VISION: A SITUATIONAL RESPONSE

There is no question that the original mission of CRY was essentially one man’s — founder Rippan
Kapur’s. This individual’s campaign expanded initially through the inclusion of a few similarly
committed friends, colleagues, and staff. From his perspective, there was no need to further
articulate a mission during the first decade of CRY’s existence. Amita Kapur, Regina Thomas, and
Vanita Malhotra, three individuals who started CRY branch offices, emphasized Rippan’s concern for
institutionalizing the CRY mission and values through the examples of Trustees and staff. His interest
in people, and the quiet rapport he established with individuals made it easy for them to assimilate
his values and his vision. From the organization’s founder and division/branch heads through to its
lowest levels — manual workers, office helpers, and the like — CRY’s values were judiciously
institutionalized over years of shared working experience.6 All activity in Bombay was carried out
from the founder’s home. The work culture that evolved was personal, family-like, and supportive,
with everyone assuming multiple tasks. Prakash Chand, a young man from a poor family, joined CRY
Delhi in 1984 as an office helper. He recalled, with nostalgia and obvious pride, packing and hand
delivering cards to homes and offices, attending telephones when that utility eventually became
available, banking checks, and mailing letters — all out of Amita Kapur’s home. Today, while Mr.
Chand places a high value on CRY’s development, he misses the personal contact with the top
managers as a result of the large staff increases. Sometime in 1990, the CRY staff decided it was time
to articulate a mission statement. Pervin Varma, a member of the staff team charged with this task,
recounts that they essentially translated the organization’s action agenda of past years, with a later
adjustment that emphasized the organization’s enabling role — as a facilitator helping to empower
beneficiaries and donors. Along with the mission, the team articulated CRY’s objectives, values that
maintain its organizational culture, and supportive guiding principles. Collectively, these statements
provide a sense of the importance CRY assigns to its institutional capacity building and the
organization’s vision. The rationale for articulating its mission, objectives, values and guiding
principles becomes clear given the quantum increase in staff. CRY grew from one person, without an
office, in 1979, to 187 persons, two corporate offices, and five branch offices in 1994. As activities
diversified — with the shift in product sales approaches from personal card sales to retailing and

6
Education sponsorships scheme: Outline.

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distribution and the introduction of resource generation restructuring — more attention was given
to reinforcing institution-building processes. Before 1990 CRY had emphasized the external
communication of its mission and vision primarily through its activities and their impact. Today, the
organization has detailed “communications guidelines” that make explicit:

• What CRY is and how to project that;

• Do’s and don’ts about tone and style of CRY communications; and

• Specific statutory requirements to be stressed in all communications.7

PROGRAM OPERATION AND EVOLUTION

CRY’s main strategy for improving the situation of Indian children has been through
generating resources, primarily from the public, and channeling them through project
“partners” whose priorities include children, women, and comprehensive community
development. CRY currently supports 143 child development project partnerships. CRY’s
first project partnership was “Buy a Brick, Build a School” in 1979, with which funds were
raised to help build the Shilpalaya Technical Institute, which provides vocational training and
foster care. This was followed by urban-based program support activity in and around
Bombay, which remained the prime focus through 1986. Support to rural projects was
introduced about 1987-88, as new staff joined. A Program Support Unit (PSU) was
established in New Delhi in 1990 and CRY began emphasizing broader support to integrated
development projects with a focus on children. PSU regional extensions followed at Madras
in 1991, and in Calcutta and Bangalore in 1992. Since then, CRY has refined and expanded
its program focus to include urban and rural children in diverse geographic areas of India,
with special attention to priority social issues, including: child labor, street children, the girl
child, child prostitution, “scheduled caste and scheduled tribes,” children as disaster victims,
and disabled children.

Key periods in the evolution of CRY’s program support work can be characterized as:

• 1979: individual school focus, in Bombay;

• 1981: education for child development;

• 1983: support to women as related to child and community development;

• 1986: rural child focus;

7
CRY in Action. Triannual Newsletter.

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• 1987: integrated project support with emphasis on multi-assistance resource center, training,
information, materials support, on-going professional guidance;

• 1992: networking, communication; documentation;

• 1994: consolidation and upgrading program quality as a bridge towards the year 2000.

EVOLUTION OF PROGRAM TARGETS

The CRY concept of “the situation of deprived Indian children” has progressively acquired a
more precise meaning. In the context of CRY’s current program support strategies, the
depiction is more holistic and nationally inclusive. CRY has prioritized vulnerable children,
identified by location, ethnic grouping, issue and/or circumstance across India, as its primary
target. Having learned, over time, that children’s rights and development/social issues could
not be addressed in isolation, and that child relief activity is advanced by a larger community
support base, beginning with the family group, CRY now includes women as a secondary
target group.8 Concerted efforts have also been made to increase the level of community
participation in all projects.

NONFINANCIAL SUPPORT

From evaluations of past partnerships, CRY staff determined that financial resources alone
did not necessarily ensure the project’s development impact. CRY’s own situation reflects the
exhaustive and diverse resource needs, beyond funding, that the organization has labored to
harness. These insights influenced decisions to explore and include non-financial components
in its project partnerships. Examples include:

• Strengthening project (team) management capacities through project development training,

and on-going professional and expert guidance;

• Organizing seminars or workshops for project staff on specific topics such as, education,
health, finance, organizational development, and community development;

• Developing a database and providing access to information through a Documentation

Center; and

• Developing a Materials Bank in New Delhi, consisting of books, slates, toys, clothes, and
materials for income-generation programs. These are collected from schools, individuals,

8
Programme Support / MARC: Two Years Perspective Plan, 1995-1997, Draft.

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colleges, and businesses, and disbursed to CRY-funded projects and others at a nominal cost.
Nothing is given free so as to preserve the dignity of the recipient and ensure the product is
valued. Expansion is planned to other regions, beyond Delhi.

NETWORKING

CRY defines networking as enabling and aligning with groups and individuals working
together to change the situation of vulnerable children and women.9 Viewing this role as
being a “catalyst for macro-level impact,” CRY participates in the following types of
networks:

• Among grass-roots level projects within a defined geographic area on common issues
and/or priorities;

• Between resource/training organizations;

• Linking grass-roots projects to relevant resource/training organizations;

• Networking between donor agencies; and

• Issue-based networking involving a crosssection of grassroots projects, resource

organizations and donor agencies, including the government if necessary.

Other activities of the Program Support Unit include:

• Internal audit: CRY advocates organizational audits to strengthen institutional capacity.

Such audits are usually confined to its internal needs, and undertaken by a consulting agency.
A management audit of the organization, and a public opinion survey on CRY by MARC, a
market research organization, are examples of such activities that are emulated in divisional
units and regions.

• Action research: Areas of interest in education include: development of nonformal

education curricula, children’s literature, literature for neo-literates, low-cost teaching aids,
and health curricula for school children.

• Advocacy: This is seen as important to raise public awareness and influence pro-active
change to assure deprived children their rights. Developing and maintaining an informed
public ranks high on CRY’s agenda. Each branch maintains an impressive portfolio of media
clippings and other coverage of CRY activities and partnership organizations. The program

9
What I Can Do, I Must Do,Vol. I, No.2, 1994

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support division’s networking and fellowship activities are other means CRY uses to share
information on grantmaking.10

FINANCING CRY

It is clear that Kapur’s aggressive approach to fundraising has permeated the organization —
largely to its benefit. Bombay office staff member, S. Srinivasan, comments, “I used to have
a mental block about asking for donations and stuff like that. But Rippan had developed it
into an art form and enjoyed it so totally because he believed so much in why he was doing
it....” “...Rippan was sensitive and caring all the time ...especially when interacting with the
deprived,” says Kumari Sree Prakash, branch manager of CRY, Madras. But, “when it came
to the privileged, he never hesitated to ask....He believed they were just exercising their right
to give!” Resource-generation activities during CRY’s early years emphasized person-to-
person marketing of greeting cards, complemented by promotional events and donations.
Staff members describe homes cluttered with stacks of cards, files, and other CRY office
material at Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Madras. Thomas recalls evacuating card stocks from a
flooded garage to her husband’s office, loading her moped, and personally delivering boxes
of cards. Later a new female colleague joined CRY, and they both took turns making the
deliveries. Although just over 50% of the organization’s staff is officially engaged in resource
generation, virtually every CRY staff member is involved with resource and support
generation. During the research for this case study, there was ample opportunity to observe
ways that staff pursued this organizational goal: One set of interviews at CRY’s Delhi
operations was set up for late October just before the national “Diwali” festival, which marks
the beginning of the peak sales period that continues into the Christmas and New Year
season. Even while juggling orders and interviews, staff were unfailingly pleasant, patient
and accommodating with customers — realizing that this resource base needed to be
cultivated. In mid-December, in Bangalore, even while dealing with Christmas and New Year
rush orders, staff were already organizing the next fundraising event — a premiere screening
of the film “Aladdin.” There was a brief interruption as staff huddled around a transistor radio
while the pre-recorded appeals and comments of a PSU divisional coordinator were
broadcast. The functions of advocacy, fundraising and education are intermingled, as they are
all seen as leading to the same goal — building support for CRY projects.

A chronology of some of the major public events attest to this:

10
The Art of Giving, Vol. I, No.3, 1994

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• 1979: Buy a Brick, Build a School (Bombay);

• 1981: Circus Magic: three clowns from London stage a traveling workshop for children and
raise funds for CRY (Bombay);

• 1983: Children’s Day: celebrated Indian artist M.F. Hussain paints in the company of 1,000
children (Bombay);11

• 1985: Audio-visual screening of CRY activity for associations and schools (Bombay);

• 1986: School to School program to sensitize affluent children to the needs of the less
fortunate (Bombay);

• 1988: Art for CRY: 144 artists donate 180 pieces of work to mark CRY’s 10th anniversary;
companies support the ensuing exhibit which travels across all CRY regions;

• 1993: Bal Sawaal (Bombay);

• 1994: Aladdin: premiere showing (in all regions);

• 1995: Art for Cry: 15th anniversary (Bombay and Delhi); and

• 1995: Remembering Rippan: a tribute (national);

A current initiative of CRY’s Communication Division is a partnership with SOL Features,

the first features agency in India. The planned “CHILDWATCH” Project will take a
journalistic approach to raising awareness on child-related issues generally and for a targeted
audience. This communications project is expected to:

• Commission feature articles for release in Indian publications after translation into Hindi,
Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati; and

• Publish CHILDWATCH, a magazine that will carry the combined editorial output of the
project and be distributed by mail to a selected list of about 3,000 opinion leaders and
influential people.

CRY TODAY

CRY, after its founder Rippan Kapur’s death12, has been, if possible, infused with even more
zest and vigor to take forward his mission for India’s disadvantaged children. There is no

11
ART FOR CRY 1995: Bombay. Exhibition.
12
Remembering Rippan: 1st Death Anniversary. AV Cassette.

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doubt that in these last two years this spirit has aggressively directed CRY to newer and
broader vistas to benefit the lives and futures of these children who embody future India. The
organization has witnessed a pace of evolution which has CRY poised, more appropriately,
for its next stage of growth, which is after all a natural consequence. CRY is now considered
the leading child development agency in India and has received various acknowledgments
and recognitions at home and from abroad.

Two major factors that have influenced and facilitated this phase have been an unquenchable
quest for improvements in organizational outlook, strategies and systems, and the
empowerment of individuals in the Indian family.

The most important exercise conducted vis-à-vis improvements towards more meaningful
impacts was an external evaluation of CRY’s program support area in the year 1995/96. This
elicited the sought for gaps as opportunities for improved systems, areas for stronger strategic
alliances and CRY’s future path. In the context of the future path, it became clear that CRY
must now ready itself for a role it has long envisaged — that of advocacy. The organization is
thus currently engaged in a relevant process of research and training.

As mentioned in the case study, CRY also has a Youth Wing which focuses on sensitizing
privileged children to the issue of underprivileged children. The privileged children are
reached through schools and colleges in Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and Madras. Various core
groups of privileged children from Standards VII to IX havebeen formed and meet
fortnightly. The focus is on the use of interactive methodologies such as debates, games,
project visits and exposure camps. Since these children will be in responsible decision
making positions in the future, CRY believes that the sensitization process must begin during
their youth.

Continuing with the improvement and accountability, CRY has introduced within the field of
project support administration the inputs of an audit firm regarding audits and training in
accounting systems at the project level. Separately, this firm is also engaged in training
CRY’s project support personnel in financial monitoring and evaluation.

Efforts for research and improvement in other areas are ongoing. The next major component
is seen to be in the field of resource mobilization. CRY has initiated a pay-roll giving scheme
as its newest fundraising effort. The Government of India has granted to CRY a 100%
Donation Tax Deduction facility which acts as a further incentive for potential donors.

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CRY’s greatest challenge today lies in its long term sustainability. Having concentrated its
efforts directly on programs for children CRY’s own growing infrastructural needs took a
back seat. Historically, CRY has sought donations in cash and kind for its needs, but now the
operational scope — with a projected Rs. 625 million (US$1.7million) being disbursed in
1997/98 — makes it increasingly difficult to continue on this ad hoc basis. CRY has
identified a strategy to grow its meager Corpus Fund to meet its basic operating costs through
the generated interest. CRY is currently struggling to achieve this arduous objective.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• CRY, All About CRY, Child Relief & You 1994-95.

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• Orientation brief.
• Annual Report 1992-93
• ART FOR CRY 1988: The results. Exhibition.
• ART FOR CRY 1995: Bombay. Exhibition.
• Audited Accounts 1993-94. Before submission to, and approval by Trustees.
• Child Development Fund. Outline.
• Child Watch: The Child Watch Project, 19 December 1993.
• Classifications Scheme. Database catalog
• Communication Guidelines
• CRY in Action. Triannual Newsletter.
• Education sponsorships scheme: Outline.
• Fellowship Guidelines
• Fellowship Project Proposals, Bangalore.
• Materials Bank, Delhi. Outline
• Media Coverage Albums: Bombay and Bangalore
• Memorandum of Association & CRY Registration
• Memorial Foundations: Direct mail project.
• Product Brochure : 1994
• Programme Support / MARC Manual
• Programme Support / MARC: Two Years Perspective Plan, 1995-1997, Draft.
• Remembering Rippan: 1st Death Anniversary. AV Cassette.

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