14
2008
Sweet, sugary and ubiquitous around the world, Coca-Cola has run into trouble in many places.
In India the soft-drink giant has been in and out of controversies, mainly those concerning pesticide levels and ground water extraction, and there have been many a sign of unhappiness with the multinational: NGOs crying blue murder, bottles being smashed in public, court orders being issued, then overturned, angry citizens staging protests - the list goes on.
The company is now keen to correct its sullied image through various efforts, happily donning the mantle of corporate social responsibility. With reason; Coke was asked to leave the country once, back in 1977, so it is not taking any chances these days. Late last year it set up a Coco-Cola India foundation with $10 million allocated for community development and, for "a range of activities including water, the environment, healthy living and social advancement." Whether it will achieve these ambitious goals is yet to be seen, but some notable efforts can be seen.
In the arid, water-starved western state of Rajasthan, Coca-Cola has made a few initiatives that are being hailed by the locals. In one, the company has restored an ancient, decrepit well, which actually had a capacity of eight million liters, but had become, in the absence of funds to revive it, a garbage pit. Coca-Cola, in collaboration with the municipal authorities began restoration work on that well four years ago and today, with the successful completion of the project, the water has pumped a new life into the village. Its women no longer have to walk miles just to get drinking water. The locals, needless to say, are thrilled.
Another program that has helped Coke's image is the drip-irrigation project, which is said to have brought down water usage in some areas by as much as 50 percent by wasting less water in farming, a good idea in a parched state like Rajasthan, which has seen severe water shortages in recent years.
Coke has also reduced water usage in its bottling plants. But with all this, it has still not managed to stay completely out of controversy. Although Coke is trying to "give-back" what it takes from the ground, many questions still remain and skeptics are still not impressed with the company's efforts.
Ironically, in the very same state where the company has implemented these water projects, Rajastan, it has been asked, by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), to close down its bottling plant as the state is facing a severe water shortage. Also, Coke hasn't addressed the suggestion that it provide compensation to the residents in Plachimada, a village in the southern state of Kerala, which is where protests against the company began. Alarming levels of pesticide were found in the ground water near the bottling plant.
The company's trials in India are not going to be a thing of the past anytime soon, but, as it often happens in India, controversies come and go, newspapers howl, debates ensue, but, at the end of the day, if the brunt is being taken by some hapless villagers in remote corners, the country moves on, while petitions languish in courts for years. Till, one day, someone points out another alarming fact, and the whole circus is replayed. It seems as though Coca-Cola's efforts to burnish its image will help the debate about what happened in Plachimada follow this sadly predictable course.
Coke, thus, need not worry. As long as it carries its less attractive activities in far-off corners of the country, and continues to work on its image, not much will come of these protests.