What began with a few conversations on a Mumbai’s pavement has grown into a movement to improve education, health and hygiene among children across Maharashtra.
After spending 35 years in the electronics industry, Nitin Wadhwani founded the Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR) with the support of Co- Directors Mrs, Indrani Malkani and Mr. Mohinder Pal Singh, turning his desire to contribute to society into a sustained effort to strengthen government schools and empower children.
From Gajras to BMC Schools
One Sunday, Nitin Wadhwani found himself sitting on a pavement in Mumbai, surrounded by families busy making gajras (flower garland). He was not there to buy flowers or distribute anything. He wanted to understand why the children of these families were spending their days on the streets instead of attending school.
For nearly six months, Nitin had been visiting this community, listening to parents and learning about their circumstances. Many families had migrated to Mumbai from rural Maharashtra after struggling to earn a livelihood through agriculture. Although the city offered them an opportunity to earn, their children had become part of the family’s daily struggle for survival. Some sold things at traffic signals, while others were found begging.
The children were willing to attend school, but their parents heavily depended on their contribution to the household income. Convincing them that education could offer their children a different future was not easy.
After months of conversations with their parents, Nitin finally made his request clear. “Because if the children don’t go to the school now, or they are not educated, 20 years down the line, they will also be on the footpath doing whatever exactly their parents are doing today.”
The parents eventually agreed. The very next Monday, Nitin took 21 children and their parents to a nearby Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) school, just 500 metres away, and helped get the children admitted.
Little did he know, that the visit would change the course of his own life as well.
An Encounter That Changed His Perspective
When Nitin entered the Municipal School, he noticed several problems. The infrastructure was poorly maintained, toilets were unhygienic, and computer labs existed without teachers to operate them. Some computers were not even functional.
The experience made him question, why so little attention was being paid to government schools, particularly when they were supported by taxpayers’ money.
Until then, Nitin had spent most of his professional life in the Electronics Industry. He had worked in the sector for 35 years and had also spent two and a half to three years in the export business in the Middle East and Hong Kong.
His association with the social sector began more than 15 years ago when he became a small donor to Child Rights and You (CRY). What started as financial support gradually developed into volunteering. However, the experience of working with street children and visiting Municipal Schools made him realise that he wanted to contribute more directly.
He began attending Advanced Locality Management (ALM) meetings, where representatives of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) discussed civic concerns such as roads, water supply and hawker-related issues. He noticed that Municipal Schools and Public Healthcare facilities rarely featured in these conversations.
Nitin believed that citizens could not remain disconnected from institutions funded through public money simply because their own children attended private schools.
These conversations eventually led to the formation of the Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR), which was registered as a Section 8 non-profit organisation around 2013.
Computer Literacy to Government Schools
CACR’s initial efforts focused on making better use of existing resources in Municipal Schools.
One of Nitin’s early collaborators, an IIT Bombay alumnus from the 1969 batch, highlighted how computers were available in schools but remained underutilised because of a shortage of teachers.
The idea was simple: could retired professionals and citizens volunteer an hour every week to teach children basic computer skills?
With support from IIT Bombay, more than 70 to 80 citizens came together and received training to conduct computer literacy sessions. Volunteers began visiting neighbourhood schools and teaching children how to use computers.
The initiative received an encouraging response. However, Nitin soon realised that relying entirely on individual volunteers would not be enough to reach thousands of children across Mumbai’s Municipal Schools.
Instead of creating a separate teaching system, he approached the BMC Education Department with the idea of training existing teachers.
CACR reached out to Colleges, including K. J. Somaiya, Vivekanand College, Thakur College, Jai Hind College and K. C. College, and mobilised student volunteers. With support from IIT Bombay and Engineering College students, the organisation developed a structured Teacher-Training programme covering basic Computer Operations, Hardware, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Eventually, around 900 BMC teachers participated in the programme.
For Nitin, the larger lesson was that social organisations should strengthen Public Institutions rather than replacing them. “We should not create parallel systems. We should try to strengthen the system.”
Hygiene and Sanitation Awareness
In 2014, as the Swachh Bharat Mission encouraged cleanliness initiatives across the country, CACR began working with children on Hygiene and Sanitation.
Nitin also approached UNICEF after reading about children who were out of school and lacked access to education. His conversations with the organisation eventually led to an opportunity to assess Water, Sanitation and Hygiene facilities in Municipal Schools.
The assessment examined toilets, urinals and handwashing stations against the Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya guidelines. The findings were compiled into a report and shared with the BMC, marking the beginning of CACR’s partnership with UNICEF in 2016.
Another important initiative emerged from a seemingly ordinary incident inside a school.
During a visit, Nitin noticed a boy leaving a toilet without washing his hands with soap. When he questioned the child, the boy insisted that he had washed his hands. However, when Nitin checked, he found that although a tap was available, there was no soap.
The incident made him realise that providing infrastructure alone was not enough. Children also needed to understand the importance of everyday hygiene practices.
With UNICEF’s support, CACR introduced a handwashing-with-soap programme in 2016. Volunteers received training and took Child-Friendly Learning Modules into schools. Hygiene Kits containing soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs and other essentials were also distributed.
However, Nitin’s focus remained on behaviour change rather than one-time distribution.
While speaking to The Logical Indian, he explained that teaching a child to wash hands might take a day, but developing a lasting habit could take years. For him, meaningful social work required consistent engagement, reinforcements, follow-ups and patience.
Menstrual Health Education
Another significant chapter in CACR’s journey began when Nitin read about girls being isolated during menstruation in parts of Nepal and Maharashtra.
Disturbed by the practice, he shared the article with the organisation’s volunteer group. Within half an hour, around 20 volunteers expressed their willingness to participate in an initiative addressing Menstrual Health.
Nitin approached UNICEF once again. With its support and training, CACR began its Menstrual Hygiene Management Programme.
Over time, the initiative developed into a comprehensive Adolescent Health Programme covering Menstruation, Reproductive Health, Myths and Taboos, Nutrition, available Sanitary Products and Safe Disposal of Menstrual Waste.
For Nitin, the objective was never simply to distribute sanitary pads. He wanted girls to understand their bodies, learn about menstrual health, and make informed choices about the products they use. The organisation emphasizes the importance of changing menstrual products at regular intervals to maintain hygiene, while ensuring that girls have access to information on a range of options, including reusable menstrual pads. Rather than prescribing a single solution, the organisation empowers girls to decide what works best for their needs and circumstances.
“You may use a sanitary pad, you may use a menstrual cup, you may use a cloth, a hygienic cloth, let us say. That choice is yours; the comfort is yours.”
The organisation gradually expanded its approach to include mothers, teachers, School Management Committees (SMC), ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers. Recognising that boys were often left out of conversations about menstruation, CACR also introduced gender-sensitisation sessions for boys.
The organisation began with a pilot involving 1,500 boys, with support from the Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd. (KMCC) subsequently extended for a programme targeting 10,000 children.
CACR has also expanded its work to Anaemia Awareness and Screening. Through an initial UNICEF-supported project in BMC Schools, it reached 3,000 adolescents in E Ward. It later partnered with Shrimad Rajchandra Hospital and Research Centre to expand screening across Maharashtra.
The organisation also signed an MoU with the Tribal Development Department, which manages more than 1,037 ashram shalas across the state.
Network of Partnerships and Community Support
Moving from volunteering to establishing and managing an organisation came with its own challenges.
Nitin had to build trust among citizens, navigate government procedures and convince funders that meaningful interventions required more than distributing hygiene kits.
He also encountered difficulties in sustaining volunteer participation. At one point, CACR had more than 500 volunteers a year, but only around 50 to 70 consistently contributed to its day-to-day activities.
As funding and programmes expanded, the organisation gradually built a professional team, recruiting trained individuals from institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Nirmala Niketan.
Support from United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC),Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited ( BPCL), Mumbai Aviation Fuel Farm Facility Private Limited (MAFFFL), Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd. (KMCC) helped CACR expand its work. The organisation also collaborated with Tata Trusts on initiatives related to WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in schools.
Around 2016-17, Nitin made the decision to leave his professional career in electronics and dedicate himself full-time to the social sector.
He believed that sustained social work required deeper involvement and an understanding of the communities being served.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, CACR undertook relief activities with support from corporate partners, distributing ration kits, masks, sanitizers and hygiene essentials. The teams also assisted migrant workers travelling from Mumbai by distributing food, fruits, biscuits and slippers at locations including Bandra Terminus, Borivali and Vasai.
In 2022-23, when floods affected Raigad and Ratnagiri, CACR partnered with UNICEF to reach more than 35,000 families, particularly from tribal communities. Its teams travelled to remote settlements and tribal hamlets to ensure relief materials reached families directly.
Apart from education and health, CACR has also worked on creating awareness and sensitization on Plastic Waste Management and Water Audits in schools, helping children understand Waste Segregation, Recycling and the consequences of water wastage.
Its Adolescent Health and Menstrual Hygiene Programme recently received the first prize for “Best Hygiene Practices at the 10th India Sanitation Coalition’s Annual Awards organised by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), along with a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakh. In 2022, CACR also received the Second Runner-Up Award at a WASH Hackathon for innovations such as Elbow-Operated Taps and Foot-Operated Handwashing Stations.
Reaching More Children Across Maharashtra
Today, CACR’s programmes extend across Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Nandurbar, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and other parts of Maharashtra.
According to the updated figures shared by Nitin, the organisation has reached more than 2 lakh children and adolescents across over 500 schools through its Personal Hygiene and Menstrual Health Programmes. Its Anaemia Mitigation initiative has reached more than 1.3 million children.
Every year, approximately 25,000 to 30,000 adolescents participate in its Behaviour-Change Programmes.
Over the next three years, CACR aims to reach at least 5 lakh children through its Adolescent Health Initiatives. It also plans to expand its Anaemia Mitigation efforts to approximately 4.5 to 5 million children.
The organisation intends to deepen its work around Adolescent Health, Hygiene, Sanitation, Anaemia, Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health, which will hopefully bring about an intergenerational compounding change.
Nitin also wants to strengthen peer education within schools, so that children can share what they learn with classmates, families and communities, even when the organisation’s trainers are not present. Nitin believes that lasting change comes from empowering and strengthening the ecosystem around children and adolescents, creating a sustainable support network that continues to guide and nurture them.
His larger belief is that empowering adolescents today can influence the health and well-being of families in the future.
Reflecting on his transition from the corporate world to social work, Nitin shared that the greatest satisfaction in his life has come from the social sector.
“It’s not about ‘me’ anymore, it’s about the satisfaction of doing something without expecting anything in return. We just want to do our bit and walk away respectfully from there.”
The Logical Indian Perspective
Nitin Wadhwani’s journey highlights how meaningful social change often begins with recognising a problem that others have learned to overlook. His experience demonstrates that improving children’s lives requires more than isolated interventions or the distribution of essential supplies. It demands sustained engagement, community participation and stronger Public Institutions.
CACR’s approach of working alongside Government Departments, teachers, citizens and development partners offers an important lesson in collaborative social work. Its initiatives in Education, Menstrual Health, Hygiene and Anaemia Mitigation also underline the importance of giving children knowledge and the confidence to make informed decisions.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of Nitin’s journey is his belief in long-term behaviour change. Whether it is encouraging children to wash their hands with soap, helping adolescents understand menstrual health or making citizens take an interest in Municipal Schools, his work reflects the value of consistent efforts.
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