Nandlal talking about the water stops/points they had last summer, giving out water to passersby:
If you sell water, the common man loses the right to water and for this reason we have the water points. We do this at the local market in Rajatalab Pepsi and Coca-Cola are sold in large quantities. This time was the first time and we got a very good response.
Why do people drink bottled water at railway stations? This is because the government does not provide the facility there. If you get good water there, then why would anyone buy bottled water? On the other hand these companies tell us that our water is bad. They tell us that the water has pesticides though generations of our people have been drinking this water. Just for the sake of profits they tell us that our water is bad and bottled water is good, though no one knows how many months old the water in the bottle is? Even today in our village, we see that people don't even drink water that has been sitting for one hour. People will immediately draw water from the well or use hand-pumps and drink fresh water. It was for these reasons we started it and we got tremendous support from the people. This time we did it in five places and next time we plan to do it in 20-25 spots. In this area the market for these drinks (bottled drinks) has gone really down. Each and every kid knows what is mixed in these drinks and why they should not drink it. I can assure you that the market of the bottled drinks has reduced to 25% in this area. You can even go and speak to the shop-owners about how much the market share for these drinks has reduced. Some of the shop-owners have even decided that they will not sell these drinks anymore and they will support our campaign.
Interview with Nandlal by Sanjeev and Anita