In 1979, seven friends made a simple decision  to change the lives of India''s  underprivileged children. Led by a 25 year airline purser, Rippan Kapur, Rs. 50 and a dining table as their resources and a belief that each one can make a difference in a child''s life, they aimed to enable all children to realize their full potential. This was how CRY began.

Unusually, the founders of CRY chose not to fund a grassroots-level implementing organisation working directly with and for underprivileged children. Instead, they opted to make CRY a channel or a link between the millions of individuals who could provide resources and the thousands of dedicated fieldworkers who were struggling to function for lack of them. They saw their role as "enablers" and in so doing created an institution that is a unique model of a community movement that takes responsibility for its weakest and most vulnerable members and motivates and catalyses change on their behalf.

Today, CRY is a peoples'' movement for the rights of India''s children encompassing diverse segments, each pledging their particular strengths, working in partnership for their common cause.