Anti-Coke Movement in Mehdiganj

Thanda-Hearted Matlab: Coca Cola in India

A Case Study In Mehandiganj Village of Environmental and Community Impact and of the Grassroots Movement

Shira WolfUniversity of Wisconsin College Year in India

Varanasi 2003-2004

History of Coke in India

● Coca Cola came to India in 1956.

● Operated under one hundred percent foreign equity.

● 1974, Foreign Exchange Act was implemented.

● 1977, Coca-Cola left India.

● Development of Indian soft drink market. Before Coke and Pepsi re-entered India, more than fifty Indian soft-drink brands had been developed and 200 production plants set up.

● 1989, Pepsi was approved to enter India.

● 1993 Coca Cola re-entered after government approval.

● In 1999, Coca Cola bought Parle

● In 2004 there were twenty seven wholly owned Coca-Cola bottling plants and seventeen franchisee-owned bottling plants in India.

Mehdiganj

● Once a successful weaving village. But now the demand has fallen. Now, mostly weaving done by children

● Pottery and working in fields are other means of livelihood. Many work in city.

● Currently about 10,000 people are living in the village.

● On February 10th 1999, Coca Cola bought Parle Soft drinks and Kejriwal Beverages PVT. LTD in Mehandiganj village became Bharat Coca-Cola Bottling North-East.

Gram Sabha land

● The Parle factory had been built on land belonging to the Gram Sabha (village council) plus about seven acres of farm land.

● The Gram Panchayat placed a lawsuit on them for this illegal occupation. Parle factory never went into operation after constructing their factory.

● Kejerwal sold Parle to Coca Cola, leaving the issue of land occupation unresolved.

● The law suit continued against Coca Cola for six months until a compromise was made.

● The compromise was that the village would be given new land in return for the occupied Gram Sabha land. However, this land has still not been given

Mehandiganj is bright green in the areas farther away from the bottling plant, but the closer you get to the plant, the land becomes more crumbled and dry and it is completely visible that the land has gone bad.

Above: The condition of the village land on the backside of the bottling plant.

Pollution in Mehdiganj

Opposition to Coca-Cola

● The Gram Sabha entered into a dispute with the company over the land that was occupied on its own.

● The villagers did not oppose the plant till 2002 when they noticed that operations were taking a heavy toll on land (about 20 acres). The farmers formed a group in September 2002 which they officially named Gaoun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti

● They also realized that the jobs they were waiting for either would exploit them for a few months then release them or were not coming at all.

● Lok Samiti got involved later, and helped build a mass movement.

● The five main issues are regarding groundwater extraction, pollution, electricity, employment and land issues.

Water Issue

● Estimates that the plant draws twenty five lakh liters of water.

● The land is Mehandiganj is becoming much drier due to the diminished groundwater.

● After much protest and unrest in the village, the company offered to have hand pumps built in the village as an alternative to wells.

● Some people have accepted these pumps but others see it as a form of manipulation.

● Excessive groundwater extraction leads to the contamination of the water

Pollution Issue

● The company had been dumping polluted water onto the villager’s fields.

● Dumping the water in these areas also greatly increased the amounts of mosquito’s as well as skin disease.

● Villagers say that as soon as the water came into contact with their skin they experienced an intense itching sensation.

● Until July 2003, the Factory had been dumping their polluted water into the fields and orcha rds.

● An area of 20 acres affected.

● Even though the company has built a pipeline, they have not reimbursed the farmers for their lost money. And money continues to be lost.

● It is also true that toxic waste was given to the farmers as fertilizer.

Pollution Issue

One area where polluted water was dumped, into a stream leading to a field of paddy crops

Pollution and Electricity Issue

● The only report which has come out about pollution is the one done by Lok Samiti when the District Magistrate asked for proof that pollution was harming the fields.

● This report was submitted in May 2003.

● Another issue with the bottling plant is regarding their use of electricity.

● Instead of a regular electricity connection the factory runs on two huge generators that each use 360 liters of fuel an hour and cause a loud noise throughout the village.

Employment

● There are 10,000 people currently living in the Mehandiganj area and yet only 60-70 of them have jobs at the plant.

● These jobs are not permanent jobs but ones of contract labor (3 months).

● They pitted workers against each other.

● Men working at Coca-Cola have acknowledged that even if the plant gives jobs, even if the plant modifies itself in that way, the core problems will still be occurring.

● Plant identified worker's leaders and fired them. Restraint orders too were handed out.

Resistance and Action

● Many NGO’s and grassroots parties are a part of the coca cola movement- Samjwadi Jan Parishad (a grassroots socialist council), Sajha Sanskriti Manch (joint cultural forum), The women’s organization, an art inspirational forum, and Lok Chetana Samiti.

● It was not until Lok Chetana Samiti and their local branch Lok Samiti came to the villagers that they were empowered to strengthen their protest against the bottling plant.

● Lok Samiti works independently at the village level.

● Lok Samiti documents range from letters written to the president of India, to unofficial reports on the destruction of crops from pollution.

● They got response only once from DM asking for land pollution documentation, but no followup after that.

Resistance and Action

● Many NGO’s and grassroots parties are a part of the coca cola movement- Samjwadi Jan Parishad (a grassroots socialist council), Sajha Sanskriti Manch (joint cultural forum), The women’s organization, an art inspirational forum, and Lok Chetana Samiti.

● It was not until Lok Chetana Samiti and their local branch Lok Samiti came to the villagers that they were empowered to strengthen their protest against the bottling plant.

● Lok Samiti works independently at the village level.

● Lok Samiti documents range from letters written to the president of India, to unofficial reports on the destruction of crops from pollution.

● They got response only once from DM asking for land pollution documentation, but no followup after that.

Resistance and Action

● On September 10th 2003, 500 people protested in front of the plant. Many were beaten by police and Coca Cola security. Seventy six people were arrested and fourteen people were injured with welts on their bodies

● Another sit-in was organized to protest this. Irregularities like police not using name tags have been pointed out.

Resistance and Action

● Various protests, sit-ins, representations to the authorities, marches.

● Requests for

– Cancellation of license, organizing a public hearing.

– Compensation for people effected by pollution.

– Free land occupied.

– Investigate excessive police action.

– Action against excessive ground water exploitation.

● No action, no testing.

Resistance and Action

● Five-day fast from 2004 December 12th to 16th

● Coca-Cola submitted a letter saying the people have restraining order and so should not come near the factory.

● 200 Mehdiganj residents attended the World Social Forum in Bombay in 2004. This inspired and empowered them to take a stronger role in the movement as they saw its relation to a larger struggle.

● External organizations focus on globalization and MNC angle.

● Some instances where public meetings are dominated by external organizations, and little local participation.

● Documented growth of the movement from ambivalence to saying that the people do not want the plant in their community.