Hindustan Unilever has come under attack in Tamil Nadu after a rap music video by Sophia Ashraf has gone viral which highlights the demand that the corporate group take responsibility for the mercury contamination by an old thermometer factory in Kodaikanal.
The artist has also demanded that former workers of the factory be rehabilitated and compensated. The video calls for a complete clean-up of the factory site to remove the mercury contamination at hillstation.
Environmental Activist Nityanand Jayaraman says that the demand has been there for 14 years but it is being highlighted now that the issue is in social media. "The idea behind the video and taking it to the social media platform is because for the last 14 years we haven't got much attraction from the mainstream media primarily because of the amount of money that Unilever invests in advertising," Nityanand says.
The environmental activists also claims that their demands are two-fold. "The first demand is that the contamination left by Unilever by reckless discharge of mercury has to be cleaned-up and the second is that the workers and families who have been affected by mercury exposure need to be compensated and their long term medical rehabilitation should be taken care of," he says.
Despite the uproar over the issue, we have not received any response from Hindustan Lever so far.
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