Consumer Rights are referred to a set of laws that represent the right to be

informed about the quantity, quality, purity, potency, price of goods and their
standards so that the consumer is protected against all sorts of unfair trade
practices. The Consumer Bill of Rights upholds the right to safety of every
citizen.Consumer Rights helps you to understand that the awareness of being a well
informed consumer arose out of consumer movement and active participation of people
through their struggles over a long period. This chapter also provides details of a
few organisations helping consumers in different ways. Finally, it ends with some
critical issues of the consumer movement in India.

MEANING OF CONSUMERS

Consumers are in the receiving end of the market transaction.They are the ones who
buy or obtain a certain good from a producer.As such, consumers play a vital role
in the economic system of a capitalist economy. Without consumer demand, producers
would lack one of the key motivations to produce: to sell to consumers. Consumers
are often exploited due to their lack of awareness or due to the lesser influence
they hold in the market.At times even false information is passed on social media
and other sources to attract consumers.Hence ,there is a need for rules and
regulations to ensure protection for consumers.

CONCEPT OF CONSUMER PROTECTION AND COMMON MALPRACTICES

Consumer protection means safeguarding the interest and rights of consumers. In

other words, it refers to the measures adopted for the protection of consumers from
unscrupulous and unethical malpractices by the business and to provide them speedy
redressal of their grievances.Consumer protection is severely rerquired everywhere
in the world.
Proper rules and regulations are needed to protect the consumer in the marketplace
because:
-A lot of time dealers indulge themselves and others within unfair practices and
trades like under-measurement, underweight, hoarding, etc.
-Half of the customers are not aware of the rights that they have and as a result,
are deceived by suppliers.
-Sellers have a habit of making fake promises to the consumers about the quality
and durability of the products through jingles and catchy advertisements.
-Sometimes the producers sell goods at a rate higher than the MRP.
-Adultered good are also sold to the consumers .

NEED FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION

The necessity of adopting measures to protect the interest of consumers arises

mainly due to the helpless position of the consumers.Consumers have the right to
obtain information about the goods and services they purchase.This way they can
make sure that theyre leading themselves to a good choice.However most of the time
consumers are not aware of their rights or blissfully dismiss them as unimportant
but due to the prevailing malpractices in the market and their vulnerability to
them it is necessary to put in place laws to ensure theyre not exploited.
-Its the companies responsibility to serve their consumers the best service that
they can produce and to not lead them up to bad quality of goods.
-Consumer awareness about their rights and the malpractices done to them should be
informed to people at a larger scale.
-According to the Gandhian philosphy,manufacturers and producers are not the real
owners of the business. Resources are supplied by the society. They are merely the
trustees of the resources and, therefore, they should use such resources
effectively for the benefit of the society, which includes the consumers.
CONSUMER MOVEMENTS

The consumer movement is an effort to promote consumer protection through an

organized social movement, which is in many places led by consumer organizations.
It advocates for the rights of consumers, especially when those rights are actively
breached by the actions of corporations, governments, and other organizations which
provide products and services to consumers. Consumer movements also commonly
advocate for increased health and safety standards, honest information about
products in advertising, and consumer representation in political bodies.Like all
other countries, India too has its consumer movement group. It was originated to
protect and promote consumers' interest against unethical, unfair, and fraudulent
practices.Rampant food shortages,hoarding,black marketing and edible oil gave birth
to the consumer movement in an organised form in the 1960's. The consumer movement
act in India is popularly known as the Consumer Protection Act 1986, also called
COPRA.After this act has been enacted 24 December has been celebrated as National
Consumers Day.

consumers international -
In 1985 United Nations adopted the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection. This was
a tool for nations to adopt measures to protect consumers and for consumer advocacy
groups to press their governments to do so. At the international level, this has
become the foundation for consumer movement. Today, Consumers International has
become an umbrella body to over 220 member organisations from over 115 countries.

CAUSES OF CONSUMER EXPLOITATION

Reasons or factors causing exploitation of consumers are:

(1) Limited information
(2) Limited supplies
(3) Limited competition
(4) Low literacy
(5) Lack of bargaining power
(6) Irregular prices offered
(7) Misleading advertisements
(8) Lack of unity and
(9) Cumbersome and time taking legal proceedings.

RIGHTS OF CONSUMERS

Every consumer disrespective of his age,caste,gender and religion are entitled to 6

consumer rights which he/she can enjoy to the fullest.These include:
-Right to be informed

Every consumer is to be provided with accurate and precise details of the items
they are buying.The details include its quality,quantity,purity,standard and their
price.All these details are nowadays provided on the labels of the goods .These
help a consumer to decide on certain criterias upon which he/she is ready to buy an
item.If the goods or services they have brought are not up to the mark they can ask
for a compensation or replacement.In recent times the right to information has been
expanded to various servuces provided by the government.In october 2005 the
government of india enacted a law popularly known as the RTI act.

-Right to choose
Any consumer who receives a service in whatever capacity has the right to choose
whether to continue to receive the service.It also provides that the consumer must
be assured, whenever possible,access to a variety of goods and services at
competitive prices. If the market hasenough varieties of products at highly
competitive prices, the buyers have an opportunity of wide selection. However, in
case of monopolies like railways, postal service and electricity supply etc. it
implies a right to be assured of satisfactory quality of service at a fair price.

-Right to seek redressal

Consumers have the right to seke redressal agaisnt any unfair trade practices and
exploitation.If any damage is done to a consumer she has the right to get
compensation depending on the degree of damage.If required, the product must be
repaired / replaced by the seller/ manufacturer.

-Right to represent

Due to the COPRA act a consumer has the right to represent him/her in the consumer
courts.Under COPRA a three tier quasi-judicial machinery at the district,state and
national levels was set up for redressal of consumer disputes.

-Right to safety

It is the right of the consumers to be protected against goods and services which
are hazardous to health or life. For example, defective vehicles could lead to
serious accidents. The same is true of electrical appliances with sub-standard
material.Thus, right to safety is an important right available to the consumer
which ensures that the manufacturers shall not produce
and sell sub-standard and dangerous products.

-Right to consumer education

It means the right to receive knowledge and skill to become informed consumer. In
this direction the consumer associations, educational institutions and the policy
makers can play an important part.Effective consumer education leads to an
increased level of consumer awareness and help them to enforce their rights more
effectively, and protect themselves against fraudulent, deceitful and grossly
misleading advertisement, labeling, etc.

RTI ACT

Right to Information Act made on october,2005 mandates timely response to citizen

requests for government information. It is an initiative taken by Department of
Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions .The
basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens,promote
transparency and accountability in the working of the Government,contain
corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense.It goes
without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil
on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the
governed.The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the
activities of the Government.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONSUMERS

-Consumers have to be conscious of the goods they buy and should check for standard
quality certification marks like WOOLMARK,AGMARK,HALLMARK,ISI etc.
-Advertisements often mislead consumers to buying a poor quality good/service with
their catchy slogans or exxagerated description of its items.Consumers thus should
not rely much on ads and check up with the goods themselves before making a
purchase.
-The consumer should inspect a variety of goods before buying the goods and
service.For this purpose he/she should compare their quality, price, durability,
after sales service etc. This would enable the consumers to make the best choice
within the limit of their own resources.
-The consumer should make sure to ask for a check receipt whenever they make a
purchase which is necessary while filing a complaint.In case of durable goods the
consumer should ask for a warranty card .Such items should be preserved carefully.
-The consumers must be aware of their rights as stated above and exercise them
while buying goods and services.
-As a consumer if you are dissatisfied with the product/services, you can ask for
redressal of your grievances.But your claim must state actual loss and the
compensation claim must be reasonable.Fictitious complaints should not be filed
otherwise the forum may penalise you.
-It is expected from the consumers that they use and handle the product/services
properly. It has been noticed that during guarantee period, people tend to reckless
use of the product, thinking that it will be replaced during the guarantee period.
This practice should be avoided.

WAYS AND MEANS OF CONSUMER PROTECTION

The following are the various ways and means of consumer protection followed in
India:

1) Lok Adalats are the effective and economical system for quick redressal of the
public grievances. The aggrieved party can directly approach the adalats with his
grievance, and his issues are discussed on the spot and decisions are taken
immediately.
2)Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is a scheme under which any person can move to
the court of law in the interest of the society. It involves efforts to provide
legal remedy to un-represented groups and interests. Such groups may consist of
consumers, minorities, poor persons, environmentalists and others.
3)Under the Consumer Protection Act 1986, a judicial system has been set up to deal
with the consumer grievances and disputes at district level, state level and
national level.Any individual consumer or association of consumers can lodge a
complaint with the District, State or National level forum,
depending on the value goods and claim for compensation.
4)To increase the level of awareness among the consumers the Government of India
has initiated various publicity measures. It regularly brings out journals,
brochures, booklets and various posters depicting the rights and responsibilities
of consumers, redressal machineries etc. It observes World Consumer Rights Day on
15 March and National Consumer Day on 24 December.
5)Consumer organisations have been active all over the world to promote and protect
consumer interests. A number of such organisations have also been set up in recent
years in different parts of India.
6)The government has created a consumer welfare fund for providing financial
assistance to strengthen the voluntary consumer movement in the country
particularly in rural areas. This fund is mainly used for setting up facilities for
training and research in consumer education, complaint handling, counseling and
guidance mechanisms, product testing labs, and so on.
7)A number of laws have been enacted in India to safeguard the interest of
consumers and protect them from unscrupulous and unethical practices of the
businessmen. Some of these Acts are as follows:
(i) Drug Control Act, 1950
(ii) Agricultural Products (Grading and Marketing) Act, 1937
(iii) Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951
(iv) Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
(v) Essential Commodities Act, 1955
(vi) The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1956
(vii) Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969
(viii) Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Essential Supplies Act,
1980
(ix) Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986

STANDARD CERTIFICTAION LOGO MARKS

While buying many commodities, on the cover, you might have seen a logo with the
letters ISI, Agmark or Hallmark. These logos and certification help consumers get
assured of quality while purchasing the goods and services. The organisations that
monitor and issue these certificates allow producers to use their logos provided
they follow certain quality standards.Though these organisations develop quality
standards for many products, it is not compulsory for all the producers to follow
standards. However, for some products that affect the health and safety of
consumers or of products of mass consumption like LPG cylinders, food colours and
additives, cement, packaged drinking water, it is mandatory on the part of the
producers to get certified by these organisations.

COPRA ACT

A major step taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the
Consumer Protection Act 1986, popularly known as COPRA.The main objectives of the
Act are to provide better and all-round protection to consumers and effective
safeguards against different types of exploitation such as defective goods,
deficient services and unfair trade practices. It also makes provisions for a
simple, speedy and inexpensive machinery for redressal of consumers’
grievances.Under COPRA, a three-tier quasijudicial machinery at the district, state
and national levels was set up for redressal of consumer disputes. The district
level court deals with the cases involving claims upto Rs 20 lakhs, the state level
courts between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 1 crore and the national level court deals with
cases involving claims exceeding Rs 1 crore. If a case is dismissed in district
level court, the consumer can also appeal in state and then in National level
courts.The salient features of Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 1986 are as follows:
(a) It applies to all goods, services and unfair trade practices unless
specifically exempted by the Central Government.
(b) It covers all sectors whether private, public or co-operative.
(c) It provides for establishment of consumer protection councils at the central,
state and district levels to promote and protect the rights of consumers and a
three tier quasijudicial machinery to deal with consumer grievances and disputes.
(d) It provides a statutory recognition to the six rights of consumers.