Heightening consumer awareness

September 2, 2009

The need for empowerment of consumers as a class cannot be over emphasized and is already well recognised all over the world. The advancement of technology and advent of sophisticated gadgets in the market and aggressive marketing strategies in the era of globalisation have not only thrown open a wide choice, for the consumer but all the same also rendered the consumer vulnerable to a plethora of problems concomitant to such rapid changes. There is an urgent and increasing necessity to educate and motivate the consumer to be wary of the quality of the products, and also the possible deficiencies in the services of the growing sector of public utilities. In short, the consumer should be empowered with respect to his rights as a consumer. He should be equipped to be vigilant with a discerning eye so as to be able to protect himself from any wrongful act on the part of the trader. In order to be able to position the consumer in such a state, there is every need not only to evolve legal remedies but also provide reliable and exhaustive information, which he can access without much effort and expense.

Recognising the importance of the problem, the Government of India and State Governments have initiated steps to introduce a dispute redress mechanism by way of Consumer Protection, but a lot more has to be done in the area of creating awareness on the part of the consumer to facilitate his seeking suitable remedy wherever there is a need. This becomes more important in the rural areas, where there is wide spread illiteracy.

The Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1995/53 of 28 July 1995 on consumer protection, urged governments to continue their efforts to implement the guidelines on consumer protection, including by creating appropriate legal frameworks and establishing means to develop, implement and monitor policies and programmes for consumer protection. The Council also recognised the role of civil society, in particular non-governmental organizations, in promoting the implementation of the guidelines. And noting the recommendation of the Commission on Sustainable Development that the guidelines for consumer protection be expanded to include guidelines for sustainable consumption patterns, 1/ the Council requested the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the development funds and programmes of the United Nations, the regional commissions and other relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, to continue to provide assistance to governments, at their request, in implementing the guidelines for consumer protection, to elaborate guidelines in the area of sustainable consumption patterns, taking into account the work undertaken in other intergovernmental forums, and to examine the possible extension of those guidelines into other areas. Finally, the Council requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to it at its substantive session of 1997 on the implementation of the resolution; the present report has been prepared in response to that request. (Source:Consumer protection Report of the Secretary-General)

In this regard the Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO) must be commended for their recent hosting of a public consultation on consumer awareness in an effort to solicit and draft the views of women in legislation on consumer affairs.

It is hoped that similar consultations would take place in all parts of the country, particularly in the rural communities where the level of illiteracy tend to be higher thus being more susceptible to being ripped off by unscrupulous commercial entities.

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