Click Crusaders

The team is quite a diverse group of youths — a software consultant,a circulation manager of a finance magazine and advertisement production professionals — who share a common passion of photography and the cause of child education.

Mentored by Nathan Sigman and Tui,a husband-wife duo of photography professionals,the five have been roaming around the city,capturing these education-deprived children in their cameras.

Havovi Wadia,a CRY member and the brain behind the initiative,said,“We have always been very motivated about child education and had been having brainstorming sessions since early this year about an initiative that would help sensitivise people about children deprived of education. As photography has always been a powerful form of media,we decided on having a photo exhibition that would illustrate the whole situation. Click Rights is a CRY volunteer group that encourages the use of photography to understand the reasons behind children being forced to drop out of school. The photographers interact and spent time with children and families on the streets of Mumbai,those who live under flyovers,children at construction sites,migrant communities and children on trains. The photos show the realities that children living in the city of Mumbai face.”

The photographers chose a theme each,with Sowmya focusing on those on trains,Sharmishtha on those working at construction sites,Alpesh Kandoi clicking children staying on the streets and Resha Gandhi on those staying at the chowpatty and making their ends meet by selling paper fans and other such items on the beach.

Sharmishtha Biswas,one of the photographer volunteers from Click Rights,says,“Through our photographs,presentations and our stories,we hope to impact the way people see children who are not in school. We want the public and the policy-makers to initiate steps to ensure that every child goes to school”.

The photos will be exhibited at various venues in the days to come. “This is just the surface we are scratching. Our initiative is an ongoing process and we hope to carry on the work in days to come,” Wadia said.