Legal Framework for Consumer Protection:
The government of India has made considerable efforts and enacted several meaningful legal measures to protect the consumers from the clutches of businessmen and middlemen. India has enacted more than 2 dozens of Acts to protect the consumer in various dimensions. A milestone in Indian history is the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, for providing comprehensive solutions to the consumer problems in the Indian market milieu. It is the backbone of the Indian consumer movement.
To resolve the consumer disputes this Act has made comprehensive provisions. Sec. 9 of the Act provides for three-tier redressal machinery viz., District Forum, State Commission, and National Commission. It provides certain rights to consumers and establishes a 3 tier quasi-judicial machinery at the district, state, and central level for the speedy redressal of consumer grievances. This act was modified from time to time by Act no.34 of 1991, Act no.50 of 1993, and Act no.62 of 2002 to serve better to consumers. To keep pace with the global changes the act was amended from time to time to suit rightly to the global changes. These include:
Consumer Protection Bill 2015, Consumer Protection Bill, 2018, and Consumer Protection Act 2019 (CP Act 2019).
The ‘CP Act 2019’ has gone one step forward in paving the way for identifying, recognizing, and incorporating various rights for consumer protection. It has not only empowered the consumers by incorporating various rights not previously available but has also imposed enough responsibilities on the stakeholders like dealers, manufacturers, service providers, and even on their endorsers. It has tried to touch upon various issues which were not catered to in the previous act. Thus, the new “CPA’2019” may prove to be more effective in dealing with the protection of consumers.
To review and reiterating the need for consumer protection, the government of India is observing 24th December of every year as National Consumer Rights Day and 15th of March of every year as a World Consumer Rights Day at a global level with a specific vital topic to debate.
World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD), March 15, 2021:
This year’s theme for world consumer rights day (March 15, 2021) is “Tackling Plastic Pollution”. On every 15th of March, it is observed the world over as a “World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD)”. It is celebrated every year across the world to debate on a specific theme of world importance and to promote consumer rights and awareness among consumers. It is an appropriate platform to debate and review, what consumers globally want and put them at the mainstream of world development.
The Consumer International (CI), a non-profit London-based consumer organization is organizing World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, of every year since 1983, in recognition of promulgation of consumer rights by the then President of USA John F. Kennedy, while addressing US congress on 15th March 1962.
Conclusion:
The widespread illiteracy, ignorance of consumer's legitimate rights, poverty, and lack of organized efforts to check the market evils are among the major causes which make people vulnerable to exploitation by manufacturers as well as middlemen. This, more or less, is the plight of the illiterate as well as the educated consumer. What is imperative now is not only to increase the literacy and income levels of people, but also to educate them in the causes for their present plight, make them aware of their legitimate rights and privileges as consumers, and train them in the course of action to be adopted to translate them into actualities.
The legal machinery in our country for the redressal of consumer problems at present is mostly confined to urban areas only. It hardly reaches rural areas. It has to be extended to reach all areas of the state. Like every aspect of consumer protection, this too is bound up with the spread of literacy and education. If all consumers, consumer organizations, business units, traders, and government are united by a common purpose and continue their activities in a spirit of fairness and commitment, certainly the consumer movement will be successful.
Let us hope for the best.
Dr. HIMACHALAM DASARAJU,Ph.D,CWF (UK)
Professor of Commerce (Retd)
Former Senior Fellow & Professor Emeritus
Commonwealth Visiting Fellow, UK
Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati -517502
A.P., India. e-mail: dhchalam@gmail.com
About the Author:
The author Dr. Himachalam Dasaraju is a Professor of Commerce (Retd) at Sri Venkateswara University. He is a Commonwealth Visiting Fellow at Essex Business School, Essex University, UK, and former Senior Fellow and Professor Emeritus. Now he is working on an international project “Carbon Accounting and Auditing in France and India” in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, France.
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