Mehdiganj
5th, 6th April 2006
Visit by Madhulika Yalamanchi
A German team Inge, Clarissa and Piaget had come to Mehdiganj to shoot a video about Coke. I went to Mehdiganj to help with translation.
The team which was expected to arrive on 5th only came on 6th morning. On 5th we spent time in the Dharna site. Lok Samiti observed a day of fast in solidarity with the Narmada folks in Delhi on the 5th. There were not many women that morning as it was a festival day.
Nandalalji showed me a newspaper article on 2nd april, 2006. It basically said that the Govt. has identified the area (Mehdiganj and the villages around) as water crises areas for this summer.They have plans to deliver water through tanks to this area. The article also says that the survey report has indicated that the water levels in the area have gone down, but did not mention who has done the survey.
For people in the community, this is rather shocking. While acknowledging that the area will soon face severe water crises, the Govt. is silent about a huge company extracting thousands of litres of water. In this context, it doesn't really matter if the water levels are going down because of coke or not. Common people make that connection: Their community wells are drying, handpumps no longer give them water, Govt. declares water crises, coco-cola still extracts water. What else can be the reason for the scarcity they face.
Nandalalji also showed me some literature distributed by coke which blames Lok Samiti. The pamphlet says Lok Samiti is blaming coke that it is bribing people with kambals, clothes and money to divert their attention from the water problem, when in reality there is no water problem.
He also showed me the High Court ruling with forbade 13 workers to not enter within 300 m of coke plant.
Coke had put up huge banners in front of the dharna site and also infront of the factory gates saying Lok Samiti members are invited in small numbers to come and see the plant and meet the workers at any time. Nandalalji said when some volunteers and the women tried to go, they were stopped and asked to come with Nandalal.
I saw the factory map. Coke had bought some amount of land from the farmers, but occupied the public roads that separated the farms. It promised some land that it had bought in return for the land it occupied, which it never gave. That is one of the issues they are fighting for.
The factory releases 2 kinds of waste : sludge (black and white) & water used to wash the bottles. The sludge was intially distributed to the farmers as a fertilizer. And the water was released into the fields. The campaign forced them to dispose water through a pipe into a village called Bikaripur. Because of continued pressure from the campaign and independent enquiries and orders from Pollution Control Board, now Coke disposes off its sludge as well as waste water within its own company premises. This again can seep into ground water and cause its pollution.
The German team arrived on 6th morning and explained their agenda. Inge had come to India in 2004 and before. She had done films on cotton (100% cotton) and child labour. She works for a German and a European TV channel and is also a freelance journalist. She said she wanted to make a film on Coke for a long time, but had no support from the TV channel. But now 2 things have changed her manager's mind and she has the permission to shoot a film.
1. Coke received several subsidies from Germany when the east and west Germany merged. The subsidies were to last 10 years. When the 10 year period expired, coke simply shut down its plant because of which 6000 employees lost their jobs.
2. Coke is sponsoring the world soccer match in Germany on the condition that in the stadium and within a radius of 1 mile, only coke products are to be sold.
In such an atmosphere, the channel was willing to let her work on the theme. Given, the soccer match, Coke is very mindful of its image now and are willing to netiotate with the labour unions.
She said she wanted to interview Nandalal, talk to villagers about their water problems and sludge, see the sludge being disposed, talk to the union leaders. Migrant labourers and also visit the coke plant.
Before coming to Mehdiganj, she had goen to Rajasthan (I forget the area) to another coke plant and Gurgaon to meet the personal relations officer of Coke. She was apparently given permission to go inside the coke factory in Germany. But when looked her up on the internet and found out the other films she had taken, they cancelled the appointment and indicated Coke plants all over to be wary. She was first given appointment with Personal relations officer in Gurgaon, but he didn't show up at all.
On the 6th morning, we planned to try and enter into the coke plant. It was decided that the 3 women, a Lok Samiti volunteer and I would go in. Inge asked Nandalal to go , but he said it would mean a wrong step for the campaign if goes in. but he agreed to come and talk to guards at the gate. When we went to the gate, the guards went and conveyed the news to their manager. A person came and took Inge's visiting card. He came back and said we can't go in. Work is happening and the mangers are busy. Lok Samiti volunteers pointed to the invitation banner and said they had invitation to come anytime. The previous time they were refused saying the plant was closed and today they say the plant is busy. If the invitation does not apply when the plant is closed nor open, just take it down or let us in. In the meantime, Inge took the manager's number from Nandalal and called him up and conveyed the same thing. The manager told her foreigners can't enter, but the community folks can go in groups of 5 and a guard will come and take them in within 10 min.
We all waited for 15 min and a guard came and said 5 people can go with him without cameras or cell phones. People objected again. Nanadalalji said "we are not interested to go and see your office and say hi. We want proof of your claims. We want to see and record where you extract water and how much, where you dispose off the sludge and water. Why is it that you bring cameras to record our dharna and we are not allowed in with them". After a heated debate there, they refused to go in without cameras and we all walked back to the dharna site.
Next, we went to meet one of the union leaders against whom the case was launched. He explained the story to us. Coke usually employees workers for 120 days a year. Somewhere between 115-120 day the workers are laid off and recruited again next season. (year). The person had worked for 3 years on contract. Through a labour union in the neighbouring biscuit factory they had learnt the basics of forming a union and the benefits they were supposed to get. They demanded bonus one year and got it. The second year, coke refused. They also learnt through the laboru courts that they were supposed to get 76Rs for 8 hrs of work, while coke was giving only Rs.72. When they demanded their right wage, coke asked them to get out or work for whatever it paid. The workers started having secret meeting to register the union. Some informers helped coke with the information in return for permanent jobs and other favours. By the time, the union reached Kanpur for registration, the officials had already been bribed and wouldn't register the union. The workers came back and ogranized a dharna. In this process, they was a fight and coke launched a case against 13 union leaders and won in the High Court.
The union leaders were not to come within 300m from the coke factory.
After this experience, coke stopped dealing with local contractors or labour and started recruiting contractors from outside the area. As a result, there are a lot of migrant labourers from Bihar, Chattisgarh etc.
Next we went to meet a migrant labour from Bihar. He said he will leave Mehdiganj after 120 days if he doesn't find job in another unit of Coke. He said he didn't like the job, as the daily wage is also not guaranteed.
We spent some time with the women at the dharna site. They all complained about lack of water or the dirt they got when they pumped too hard. Inge fixed up time with one of the women to go see her water pump.
I asked Nandalalji what they would have done if it was a swadeshi company extracting water. He said it wouldn't have made a difference. They would have protested equally vehemently. Tata, Birlas are probably no different. But this issue is immediate for us. He said they refused a sharabi dukan to set up in their village. But they couldn't go and fight against it in every village. There is a limit to what they can do given their strength and the support from villagers.