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CONSUMER RIGHTS AWARENESS: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

1.1 Consumer Rights Awareness (CRA)

Consumers play a vital role in the development of a nation. Mahatma Gandhi said, "A consumer
is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are on him. He is
not an interruption to our work; he is the purpose of it. We are not doing a favour to a consumer
by giving him an opportunity. He is doing us a favour by giving us opportunity to serve him.”
But of late unfortunately cheating by way of overcharging, black marketing, misleading
advertisements, etc has become the common practice of greedy sellers and manufacturers to
make unreasonable profits and without heed to confer consumer rights and interests.

Modern business is an integral part of current day society. Each company has as a socio-
economic impact on the people and has to deliver the goods and services and the standard of
living as per the aspirations of the people. It has a great social responsibility towards the well
being of society. Therefore consumer is an important component of society and business has an
obligation to him. But, when the goods are short in supply the producers charge high prices and
consumers have no choice other than to purchase what is available. Therefore, consumer is to be
protected from unsafe products, poor quality of goods and services, high prices, unfair trade
practices and misleading advertisements. Therefore, it is necessary for CRA, awareness to
prevail amongst the consumer to protect them from unscrupulous trade practices and to give
them the idea of the utility of money spent by them. Consumer occupies a supreme position in a
free economy. But, he never received the attention he deserves. In a country like India, he is not
the sovereign but a slave. The welfare of the consumer lies in the fulfillment of his normal and
legitimate expectation with regards to the goods and service.

Consumer rights awareness is about making the consumer aware of products or services;
however, this is largely unknown to many citizens irrespective of whether they are educated or
uneducated. With an enormous population along with high levels of poverty, unemployment and
poor literacy levels, consumer rights awareness continues to remain low. Education is a lifelong
process of constantly acquiring relevant information, knowledge and skills. Consumer education
is an important part of this process and is a basic consumer right that must be introduced at the
school level. Consumers by definition include all citizens who are, by and large the biggest
group, who are affected by almost all government, public or private decisions. The most

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important step in consumer education is awareness of consumer rights. However, consumer

Consumer rights awareness is now an integral part of our lives like a consumerist way of life.
They have been well documented and much talked about. We have all made use of them at some
point in our daily lives. Market resources and influences are growing by the day and so is the
awareness of one's consumer rights. These rights are well-defined and there are agencies like the
government, consumer courts and voluntary organizations that work towards safeguarding them.
While we all like to know about our rights and make full use of them, consumer responsibility is
an area which is still not demarcated and it is hard to spell out all the responsibilities that a
consumer is supposed to shoulder. There are six rights of consumer which are provided in the
Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

1.2 Nature of Consumer Rights

1. Right to Safety: The right to be protected against goods which are hazardous to life and
property. This consumer right is defined as the ‘right to be protected against marketing of goods
and services which are hazardous to life and property. Specifically significant in areas such as
healthcare, food processing and pharmaceuticals, this right spans across any domain that could
have a serious impact on the consumers’ health or well being such as Automobiles, Travel,
Domestic Appliances, Housing etc. Violation of this right is almost always the cause of medical
malpractice law suits in India. Every year, it is estimated that thousands, if not, millions of Indian
citizens are killed or severely hurt by unscrupulous practices by hospitals, doctors, pharmacies
and the automobile industry.

2. Right to Information: The right to be informed about the quality, quantity, purity, price and
standards of goods. This consumer right is defined as the ‘the right to be informed about the
quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services, as the case may be so
as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices’ in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
In the Indian market place, consumers get consumer information through two popular, yet
unreliable means, namely advertising and word of mouth. Due to this, the consumers in India
seldom have accurate and complete information to assess the true value, suitability, safety or
reliability of any product. Mostly we find out hidden costs, lack of suitability, safety hazards and
quality problems only after we have purchased the product.

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3. Right to Choose: The right to be assured access to a variety of products at competitive prices,
without any pressure to impose a sale, i.e., freedom of choice. Consumer Protection Act, 1986
defines this right as ‘the right to be assured, wherever possible, to have access to a variety of
goods and services at competitive prices’. Competition, invariably, is the best regulator of a
market place. Existence of oligopolies, cartels and monopolies are counterproductive to
consumerism. How often have you noticed a conglomerate of companies that lobby the
government to compromise consumer rights.

4. Right to be Heard: The right to be heard and assured that consumer interests will receive due
consideration at appropriate forums. According to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the right
to be heard and to be assured that consumer's interests will receive due consideration at
appropriate forums’ is referred to as the right to be heard. This right is supposed to empower
Indian consumers to fearlessly voice their complaints and concerns against products and
companies to ensure their issues are handled efficiently and expeditiously. However, to date the
Government of India has not created a single outlet for the consumers to be heard or their
opinions to be voiced.

5. Right to Seek Redressal: The right to get relief against unfair trade practice or exploitation.
The right ‘to seek redressal against unfair trade practices or restrictive trade practices or
unscrupulous exploitation of consumers’ is defined as the right to redressal in the Consumer
Protection Act 1986. The Indian Government has been slightly more successful with respect to
this right. Consumer courts such as District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums at the district
level, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions and National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commissions have been established through the Consumer Protection Act.

6. Right to Education: The right to be educated about rights of a consumer. The right of each
Indian citizen to be educated on matters related to consumer protection and about his/her rights is
the last right given by the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. This right simply ensures that the
consumers in India have access to informational programs and materials that would enable them
to make better purchasing decisions. Consumer education may mean both formal education
through school and college curriculums and also consumer awareness campaigns run by both
governmental and non governmental agencies (NGO).1