Unethical Practices by Coca-Cola

"Unethical Practices by Coca-Cola"

Ethics can be defined as going beyond what is legal and doing what is right, even when no one is looking. So when we are talking about unethical behavior in business, we're talking about actions that don't conform to the acceptable standards of business operations, failing to do what is right in every situations.

              In some cases, it may be an individual within a business who is unethical in the course of his or her and at other times, we're talking about the corporate culture, where the whole business is corrupt from the top down , with disastrous results for society. Some of the common examples of unethical practices are -

1. Exploiting workers 

2. Exploiting tax loopholes 
3. Misleading the facts
4. Creating fake identities

5. Gender Discrimination

6. Child Labor , etc. 

                 I am here to give my opinion on the unethical practices done by the company 'Coca-Cola'. 

The Coca-Cola company is an american multinational corporation and manufacturer, retailer and manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company started operating in India since 1950. The unethical practice terminated by 'Coca-Cola' was the case of  'Kala Dera'. Let me explain it out--

                      Kala Dera is a large village outside the village of Jaipur(Rajasthan) where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in Kala Dera in 2000. And within a year, the community started to notice a rapid decline in groundwater levels.

Unusable Well in Kala Dera Confirms Depleted Water Levels

Unusable Well in Kala Dera Showing Depleted Water Levels

                 That was the worst situation. For farmers, loss of groundwater translated directly into loss of income. For women, it mean having to walk an additional 5-6 kilometers just to fetch water to meet the basic daily needs of the family. For many children in Kala Dera, it mean leaving schools to provide much needed helping hand doing household works since the women had additional burdens.

                  The community in Kala Dera organised itself to challenge the Coca-Cola company for the worsening water conditions- through extraction and pollution and demanded the closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant. 

The company, usual fashion, denied any wrongdoing, blaming 'outsiders' for the increasing local community opposition. Instead of being socially responsible and shutting down its operations in Kala Dera or relocating, decided to persuade people into believing that it has become water neural and it also made false claims stating that it recharges the ground water. The Coca-Cola company is being extremely unaware in matters outside their business, as it is not only affecting the environment adversely, but also for farmers the loss of groundwater leads to the loss of their incomes which creates a ripple effect as their children have to leave school in order to help out, this would also affect the education system in Kala Dera .        

                    So, this is only the unethical practice of Coca Cola that I thought would be the most concern one as it affect the livelihood of the farmers and also affect the education system.

   

           Thank You 

       Sahibur Rahman