CREW - Child Rights and Empowerment of Women

CREW works in the slums, squatter colonies of Kolkata and also with the children living in the slums and platforms of Patna, Bihar to improve the quality of lives of deprived urban population. Education, protection, health and nutrition are the four major areas of intervention of CREW. Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory level of elementary education for all children below the age

of 14 years. Enrolment in the schools has now been quite high due to various schemes and policies of the GOI, but both mainstreaming and retention of children still remains as a major challenge for many pockets of Kolkata and Patna. To minimize this problem, Preparatory and coaching back-up support centres have been designed for children who are out of school as well as vulnerable and also for children who are in school but tend to drop out due to lack of support at home . In the first year of project implementation, CREW aims to reach out to 300 children through preparatory and coaching centres in wards 23, 28, 31, 32, 58, 64, 65 and 66 of Kolkata municipality and another 150 children through various initiatives to restore both protection and participation of children through the medium of education in Patna under funding of Bihar Government. While conduction of the survey it was found that a large section of the population had never been to school majorly due to cost factor and lack of awareness on the right to education.