PhotoPeer organized a 3-day exhibition for the Click Rights initative of CRY (Child Rights and You). The exhibition was held at Mani Square, one of the biggest and busiest shopping malls in Eastern India. Click Rights is an annual photojournalism campaign of CRY, reaching out to people and asking them to capture photographs on why children in India are out of school. Eminent photographers as well as amateurs were invited to contribute their photographs taken in India. This year’s theme was “Access to education: Factors that keep children out of school.”
In India, there are approximately 81,50,618 children who don’t go to school. We wanted to explore the circumstances that compel so many children to stay out of school. The primary focus of CRY was to collect evidence in the form of photographs and find out the real cause. The campaign culminated in the photo exhibition that witnessed thousands of footfalls.
Works of many eminent photographers were showcased along with those of amateur photographers. Artists like Prashant Panjiar, Swapan Nayak, Altaf Qadri, Senthil Kumaran among others lent their creations for the exhibition. Out of the many entries sent by various young and promising photographers, 20 were selected for the exhibition. A Photo book comprising of 30 pictures was specially designed for the event.
The occasion was graced by celebrities like actor Saswata Chattopadhyay, singer Nipobithi Ghosh, singer Kaushiki Chakraborty Desikan, theatre personality Sohini Halder and danseuse Amita Dutta among others who pledged their support for the Click Rights campaign. The event was made livelier by wonderful performances by Diksha Dreams and Monkey in Me. A thought provoking skit called ‘Jawab’ by Shriek of Silence left the spectators speechless.
The efforts of PhotoPeer and CRY were rewarded by hundreds of spot registrations and interest to volunteer. The event was closely covered by the local media and showed some glaring answers to the fundamental question drove home the one point it began with –
Why can’t 8,150,618 children in India go to school?
