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Mehdiganj, India - Camera distribution

Program Coordinators

Gina Drew

Daylight Community Arts Foundation is proud to introduce a new program in Mehdiganj, India where villagers in a farming community have come together to protest Coca Cola's exploitation of their most precious resource, water. Begun in 1999 when an Indian subsidiary of the Coca Cola Company set up operations in their village, the Lok Samiti has been one of the main voices calling for an end to the plant’s operations. Their list of grievances against the bottling plant is long. During the last decade of frequent drought, they witnessed a 1000% increase in the rate of groundwater decline while farmers made do with little irrigation water for crops. They attribute the decline to the plant’s non-stop use of diesel generators to pump water up from deep beneath the earth’s surface. In addition to charging the plant in Mehdiganj with the theft of community resources needed for agriculture, their accusations include public property theft, groundwater and land contamination, the wrongful distribution of toxic byproducts to villagers, and complicity in the police beatings of men and women during peaceful demonstrations at the gates of the bottling plant. Inspired by the ideals of non-violence espoused by Mohandas Gandhi, the Lok Samiti has conducted numerous sit-ins and extended fasts in order to raise awareness of their cause. With the support of regional, national, and international groups opposing water privatization, the members of the Lok Samiti are calling for people-centered water management schemes and an end to profit-centered models. Nandlal Master, the leader of the Lok Samiti in Mehdiganj explains their actions by saying, “It is a fight for livelihoods. The right for livelihood.” With slogans such as “paani hai jeevan” (water is life), their call echoes those of water movements worldwide that declare the right to water a fundamental human right.