To make an informed choice
Archana examines some aspects of social responsibility
"Sponsorship is a paid privilege and does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the sponsoring companies, organizations or individuals, their products, services or business practices."
When the IITB Heritage Fund had decided to make Dow Chemicals a gold sponsor for the Golden Jubilee celebrations in New York (July 18-20, 2008), the disclaimer (above) came in useful. Looking at the date, it is rather old news, but with placements and many campus fests around the corner, it's relevant to talk about the choices we learn to make when it comes to our jobs and sponsors.
Now, what's wrong with Dow?
A gas leak at a Union Carbide plant had given Bhopal a generous dose of the poisonous methyl isocyanate in December 1984. Leading the reasons for the tragedy was the sheer negligence on part of UC when it came to safety procedures. Over 20,000 people have died from the contamination till date, including the thousands who had perished on the day of the disaster. Cancers and birth defects continue to ail the community of survivors. In a closed room deal, UC had paid the Indian government some money (it came down to about $ 500 - $ 1200 per victim) and pulled off a quick disappearing act. The polluted site is yet to be cleaned completely and the toxins have entered the water supply which thousands of people continue to use.In 1991, the Supreme Court of India had written down Union Carbide for "culpable homicide not amounting to murder". Never did any of their officials turn up when the Indian courts summoned them.
Nothing much changed after that, except that Dow Chemicals, a company with its very own notorious history of Agent Orange and Napalm, bought Union Carbide in 2001. They chose to ignore Bhopal. In a clear case of double standards, Dow had set aside $2.2 billion to resolve asbestos-related liabilities incurred by UC in Texas but refused to address its liabilities in India.
It would seem a cruel jape in the eyes of the victims that we celebrate 50 years of our existence with money tainted with their blood, when they have been languishing in the courts and streets for the justice that has eluded them for the past 23 years. Many of our professors had signed an e-petition, addressing the organizers of the Golden Jubilee celebration, calling for rejection of ties with Dow (http://www.petitiononline.com/dowiitb/petition.html), but their voices seem to have gone unheard.
When contacted, Prof. Om Damani (CSE), one of the authors of the petition, said the students should draw their own inferences from the facts presented in the petition. At this point I'd like to reiterate that the Dow-Golden Jubilee issue is a case in point to rationalize the need for fruitful discussions about social responsibility and the importance of making informed decisions.
Do we care?
Even if Dow doesn't, we should.
It might be difficult for many of us to relate to the suffering of the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, but at least we must be able to sense that something is wrong when we take money from a company whose spokeswoman had had the audacity to declare that “$500 is plenty good for an Indian”. Something is wrong indeed.As an IIT, our actions do count. We garner much media attention for a candle light protest, an MI or a Techfest; and when we had banned Dow from placements, we got our share of claps too. Right now, we do not have a system to root out companies with bad track records from the placements scene or sponsorship deals (Dow is exceptional because of the scale of the tragedy involved. You never know how a company does its business until you do a bit of research - their safety practices, environmental policies, the hazards of their products and so on).
We can learn from Stanford University when it comes to placements. It has a group called SICD on campus - "Students for Informed Career Decisions". They realized that their image as Stanford students has the potential to question if not intimidate multi-billion dollar corporations. They present to the students the positive and negative aspects of the companies coming for placements. On the SICD website (http://www.Stanford.edu/group/SICD/) you can get to know about some companies with not-so-clean track records.
As a parting message, here's what the students and faculty of IITM had written to conclude their petition against Dow – “For members of the student body, it is infinitely important that this sort of critical thinking and learning accompany educational instruction during the years at college. It would perhaps be our best insurance against sudden disillusionment and its degeneration into chronic cynicism.”
It would be a shame if we, with our claim to being the brightest and the best, grow up to be socially irresponsible and ignorant citizens.
Archana Raja is a third year student of the Chemistry Department. She can be contacted at archana.raja@iitb.ac.in.