Significance of Consumer Protection and Awareness Programmes

Significance  of  Consumer Protection and Awareness Programmes

Written By: Dr. Gandham Sri Rama Krishna,

Published in the Journal of Facts for You, New Delhi, June, 2008, 

Vol.28, PP.33-37, ISSN: 0970-2652.

                       

 Mahatma Gandhi given a definition regarding the ‘Consumer’ in his own way, that is “Consumer is the most important visitor of our premises.  He is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption to our business.  He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him.  He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so”. Therefore, It is an established fact that consumer is a sovereign or a boss in a market economy. It is said customer satisfaction is the best testimony of future profits of the company. One of the main aim  of business organisation is profit seeking through customer satisfaction.

 Modern business is an integral part of current day society. 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 products 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 an 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.

India is a vast country where a majority of consumers are poor, helpless and disorganised. The consumer movement in India is as old as trade and commerce. Even in Kautily’s Arthashastra, there are references to the concept of consumer protection against exploitation by the trade and industry with respect to quality, short weight and measurement, adulteration etc. Till recently, there was no organized and systematic movement for safeguarding the interests of consumers.    

Consumer education  is inevitable to guard against the possible dangers of modern society. Most of the well developed countries are ahead of this exercise whereas in the developing countries like India, the consumer disputes redress machinery developed under The Consumer Protection Act 1986, has been making sincere efforts to ensure justice to the consumers. The voluntary consumer organizations are engaged in creating consumer awareness, however, mass illiteracy posed a solid obstacle to achieve rapid progress in consumer education. Consumer protection is nothing but safeguarding the interest of consumer against the abuses of marketers. Despite all the efforts from the side of the governments, consumer apathy is still posing a serious problem to strengthen consumer movement especially at grass-root level. Increasing complexity of economic activity in recent times on account of globalization resulted in confusion among the consumer class and the problems faced by our Indian consumer need to be addressed with great caution.

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. 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. 

 

Consumer Awareness Programmes (CAP) 

CAP intends to provide single window service in vital areas such as ;

ð  Consumer protection

ð  Human resource development

ð  Anti- poverty programmes and rural development

ð  Rural industrialization and technical consultancy

ð  Adult education and vocational guidance

ð  Health and family welfare

ð  Women and child welfare

ð  Environmental protection

ð  Legal aid  for the poor people.

v  Consumer Awareness Programmes for Rural People:

The need of the hour is, therefore, to educate the common consumers particularly those in rural areas who are more susceptible to exploitation. Once they are educated and made aware of the schemes that have been drawn up for their benefit and also the redressed forum that is available, the benefit of various schemes, in true sense, will reach the common consumers of the country.  

Recognizing the importance of the problem, the Government of India and State Government have initiated steps to introduce dispute redressal mechanism by way of Consumer Protection Act, 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 become more important in the rural areas. 

ð  Publish periodical and product specific booklets, pamphlets, cassettes, Compact Discs(CDs), Slides, documentary films and other devices of mass communication for promoting consumer awareness in English and regional languages, highlighting the problem in specified areas like real estate, public utilities, non-banking financial agencies et.

ð  Promote general awareness of the rights of the consumer by encouraging consumer education and supplying information.

ð  Study the available legal remedies, analyze and suggest new measures for the effective and better consumer protection.

ð  Organize and conduct seminars, and thus provide a platform for threadbare discussion of the issues and evolve suitable remedial action.

ð  Conduct motivational campaigns for groups of potential customers both in urban and rural areas.

ð  Coordinate programmes organized by Central and State Governments.

ð  Establish links with educational institutions like universities, colleges, to emphasize the need for improving consumer education in the curriculum.    

ð  Interact with national level orgnisations like NISIET, NIRD, ASCI etc., to explore possible collaboration and organize awareness programmes for their clientele and undertake research projects.

ð  Organize a database enabling the consumer retrieve the required information in a less expensive and quick way. Set up a website www.scdrc.ap.nic to publish information, news including judgements, articles, on product analysis and related matters for the guidance of consumers to have informed choice of product service, redressal agencies and mechanisms.    

v Awareness Programmes For Young Consumers:

Consumer education is an important part of this process and is a basic consumer right that must be introduced at the school level. With the increasing changes in economic conditions, the children especially are becoming young consumers at an early age. Children must learn to obtain information about goods and services, understand the psychology of selling and advertising, learn to shop wisely and distinguish between wants and needs. They must also understand the alternatives of conserving and saving rather than buying and consuming. Children are spending more of their leisure time watching  television at the cost of other pursuits such as reading or sports. With the introduction of a number of specialized satellite channels, television enjoys a large viewership base consisting of children. Exposure to the marketplace as young shoppers has made most children aware of the different kinds of products that are available. Advertisements are no doubt an important source of information as they help to inform consumers about the availability of different products before making their choice. A majority of the advertisements are aimed at young children today, especially those covering food products, beverages and cosmetics. Advertising influences the food preferences and eating habits of children to a large extent. Unfortunately, many advertisements make false promises, are highly exaggerated and give incomplete descriptions of products. The media, schools and parents along with consumer groups need to help children develop the ability to understand the purpose of advertising. There is so much more information available to children that they must perceive the importance of distinguishing between different sources of information. The consumption patterns are  changing fast and children today are very clear on their choices regarding food, clothing, cosmetics or accessories. Parents are increasingly permitting their children to take decisions when shopping. It then becomes very important for children to check label details before buying products. Children can be taught to shop wisely and a few simple precautions will ensure that they choose the right product at the right price. It is but natural that parents wish the best for their children, and strive hard to fulfill their demand.

Consumer education also involves environmental education as it deals with the importance of natural resource and sustaining the environment, including the direct health effects of environmental pollution and toxic products on consumers. Schools must incorporate consumer education into school curriculum as it is important to impart the practical skills and critical ability needed to cope with social and economic changes.

      

v Common Factors to Guide the Consumers:

Some factors to protect themselves from the probable dangers. These include:

ð  Protecting against products that are unsafe or endanger the health and welfare of the consumer.

ð  Protecting the consumers against deceptive and unfair trade practices by enabling them to exercise their rights with easy means of redressal

ð  Protecting the consumers from ecological and environmental effects of chemical, fertilizers or refinery complexes on account of their impact on water, air and food which endanger human life. Consumers must be educated to protect themselves from all sorts of pollutions so that they can live in healthy environment.

ð  Organizing themselves as responsible groups to prevent exploitation taking advantage of general apathy, indifference and helplessness in a State administration.

ð  Organized consumer behaviour can put an end to the prevailing malpractices like profiteering, black marketing, hoarding adulteration, short weights and measures, misleading advertisements and tall claims in marketing strategies.

ð  To provide better protection to the rights and interest of consumers

ð  To provide protection against the unfair trade practice and restrictive trade practice of sellers

ð  To provide redressal to consumer disputes.  Like District forums, State Commission, and National Commission.

In the market, some of the traders has been commit two types of trade practices like unfair trade practice and restrictive trade practices. The Consumer Protection Act main objective is to protect the consumers from these trade practices.  

ð  Unfair Trade Practice means misleading advertisement and false representation and false offer and bargain price and schemes of offering gifts and prizes. Unfair trade practice like false and misleading description about the nature and quality of the goods, exaggerated statements about their power and potency and using false weights and measurements have been causing loss or injury to consumers of such goods and services.

ð  Restrictive Trade Practice  means any trade practice which requires a consumer to buy, hire or avail of any goods or services as a condition precedent for buying, hiring or availing of other goods or services. This is called tie up sales.

v  Rights of the Consumer

     The welfare of the consumer lies in the fulfillment of his normal and legitimate expectation with regards to the goods and services the consumer education is a basic consumer right. The consumer is worried about the quality, quantity, price and timeliness of the supply of goods and services.  In India, the Government has taken many steps including legislative, to protect consumers.  Consumer Protection Act lays down the rights of the consumer. The rights are executed by  the Central  and State and District consumer protection councils. 

ð  Right to safety: The right to be protected against  the marketing of goods which are hazardous to life and property

ð  Right to be informed: About the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices.

ð  Right to Choose: It means right to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of goods and service at competitive prices. In case of monopolies i.e., railways, telephones etc., to means right to be assured of satisfactory quality and services at a fair price.

ð  Right to be heard: To be assured that consumer’s interest will receive due consideration at appropriate forums.

ð  Right to seek Redressal: Against unfair trade practice or exploitation of consumer, and

ð  Right to Consumer Education: the most important step in consumer education is awareness of consumer rights. It means the right to acquire the knowledge and skill to be an informed consumer. Consumer education assumes considerable importance not only to develop healthy business climate but also to  enable the consumers to exercise the sovereign right to demand, justice and fair trade practices. Education is a life long process of constantly acquiring relevant information, knowledge and skills. However, consumer education is incomplete without the responsibilities and duties of consumers, and this influences individual behaviour to a great extent.

Consumer protection in the marketing sense is a thing of the past. There is a feeling that consumer associations in developing countries should stress more on fundamental causes which will be of interest to environmentalists rather than consumer unions in the west. In the case of production policy, the problems of quality in terms of brand proliferation, planned obsolescence and after sales services are obviously not in favour of consumers. Similarly, the media and the category of product rarely the truth in advertising. Such issues real or imaginary are galore in marketing practice. Further, marketing contributes to pollution through its expansion and promotion of disposable products. Moreover, it is strange that society on the whole seems to prefer the added convenience of disposability but increasingly, voices objections to the added pollution involved. 

In this customer awareness programmes the following two concepts are also important to follow the organizations and customers.

a)      Customer Relationship Management(CRM):

Customer relationship management means business strategies that help identify, manage and personalize the needs of a corporate present and potential customers, and develop a method, which leads to long term profitable customer relationship. It also means to provide such services to the customers that exceeds their expectations.  

CRM is not a product or service, rather a strategy used to learn more about customer needs and behaviour in order to develop stronger relationship with them. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lot of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsive and market trends. CRM focuses not only on retaining customers but also getting new ones. McDonald conformance to QSCV- Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value that failed to conform to the product or service are given up. Basically a customer is one who tries to enhance the sales of his/her products. Here the needs, facilities, services and support of the customer are hardly taken into consideration; CRM provides the needed customer communication, interaction, acquisition, retention, penetration and reactivation. This inherently integrative action such as sales, marketing and customer service, customer care strategies require a significant commitment on the part of the management. Customer perceptions are based on “easy access to relevant information, customer service, value, quality of products and services, convenience, speed and ease of use”. The contrast between traditional sales approach and Key Account Management (KAM) programs is to engage customers in relationship marketing. It is observed that customer relationship can be strengthened in building, maintaining and enhancing the role of information technology (IT). The Objectives of  the CRM are as follows:

ð  Better customer service through automation

ð  Provide faster response to customer inquiries.

ð  Keeping deep knowledge of customers

ð  Discovers new customers. Retaining old customers and turn them into loyal customers.  

b)     Total Value Management(TVM)

TVM focuses on the consumer oriented approach and reduces total cost of meeting customer requirements every time. TVM largely depends on such key requirements as innovation, performance, productivity, improvement and delightment. Delighting is a matter of adding unexpected surprises (consumer surplus) to the consumers. TVM seeks to develop, improve, implement, control costs and tone up human resources. In a word, TVM focuses its attention on customer delight, continuous quality improvement (CQI) and employee involvement (participatory process and team building) which leads to continuous human development in terms of utilizing employees to their fullest potential. TVM is based on five interdependent elements to make the structure effective: they are products, process, organisation, leadership and commitment. We are aware, an organisation has to strive its best initially to make the product quality oriented. Without strengthening the base of the process, the organisation remains ineffective. To make it effective, leadership and loyal bottom up commitment are called for. Quality can be retained and enhanced by continuous process of everything by everyone. Thereby products, processes and people can be endlessly enhanced. It also promotes “continuous improvement of everything by every one” (Kaizen). Quality is “the degree of goodness or worth of  a person, place or thing.” Quality is an attribute that can be assessed quantitatively. The aim of the organisation is to succeed by satisfying customer needs better than its competitors.

Functioning of  Grievance Cell:

            Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) has a full-fledged Grievance Cell functioning at the headquarters in New Delhi and Public Grievance Officer at all Regional & Branch Offices to provide consumers with prompt attention and speedy redressal of their grievances. In case of any complaint about the quality of its Market products, the consumers should get in touch with the nearest office of the BIS. The Central Government has made BIS Certificate Scheme compulsory for items meant for mass consumption, consumer safety, health and energy conservation. Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery is a purity Certificate Scheme of BIS. Hallmarked jewellery has to go through stringent norms of manufacture and quality control. BIS has a system of attending the complaints and redressal by way of replacement, repair of ISI Marked products in case the complaint is found to be genuine. Necessary actions are taken to ensure that corrective measures are taken by erring manufacturers so that other consumers are not put to inconvenience. Such complaints are also treated as feedback information on the performance of the manufacturers who are granted licence to use ISI Mark on their products.  

             

Conclusion:

            The medieval proverb says merchant has no nation. It means that a trader can view the entire world as one country for his operations. The globe is just like one country for business. In the global, organizations have crossed the boundary of the country in terms of their business operations. In this globalize world consumer is one of the victims of trade. The consumer is in a fix to decide what to purchase, what not to purchase because in the market the same products are available in deferent prices. And he is unable to decide what is the real price of an product. If at all the consumer challenging in the consumer forum. He has to wait for the orders month together. The  misleading advertisements, false statements, false advertisements,  false offers, food adulteration, bargaining prices, schemes offering, gifts and prizes offering, misleading of quantity, quality, and purity are an unfair trade practice and restrictive trade practice committed by traders and sellers.

            The consumer will becoming a victim of parasite and traders. The present luxurious world in turbulent environment the consumers are exploited by the traders to the maximum extent, because consumers don’t have leisure time to protest or fail a case against illegal trade practice. Hence, the government and voluntary organizations must come forward  to check exploitation of consumer.           

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