CONSUMER RIGHTS AND AWARENESS

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to my teacher Mrs. Alka ma’am as
well as our Principal ma’am, who gave me this golden opportunity to do this wonderful and
informative project on the topic Consumer Rights and Awareness which has helped me in
doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many important things.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my family and friends who helped me finishing this
project on time.

Preface:
I made this project as a part of my scholastic activity – Individual Social Project.
This project contains the information about Consumers, Producers, how Consumers are
getting exploited and the factors causing the exploitation. It also provides information about
the Consumer Awareness. It enables the Role, Rights & Responsibilities of Consumers. It also
aims to highlights the legal measures to be taken from being exploited. It also talks about
how and where to complain, if one is exploited.

Relation between Producers and Consumers:

Producers are people who make or grow goods and provide services. Sometimes they are
called workers, and they help us do things. For example, a florist is a producer who makes
pretty bouquets. A baker is a producer who cooks up yummy cakes, and a painter is a
producer who creates artwork for us to admire.
Consumers are people who buy or use goods and services to satisfy their wants. When you
eat your dinner, you will be a consumer. You’ll be hungry and eating a meal will make you
feel full. You’ll be a consumer of food.
Producers rely on consumers to buy from them, and consumers rely on producers to provide
the goods and services they want. Money allows this relationship to work.
Producers and consumers are connected by trade and prices. Economic forces like supply
and demand determine the extent of the relationship between producers and consumers in
a given market. In a free-market society, every trade makes a producer and a consumer
wealthier. Wealth is measured in individual satisfaction and nothing else. So, when a
producer and a consumer decide to enter into a trade, both of them believe that they will be
more satisfied, and thus wealthier.
Thus, the relationship between producers and consumers is mutually beneficial, which is
why they work together on many aspects of trade. It’s important to note that the extent of
the relationship between the two also depends on the economy and the type of market for
the specific product or service being provided.

How are Consumers exploited?

A consumer is said to be exploited when he/she is cheated by the producer or trader into
buying lower quality or adulterated goods for more money.

A consumer can be exploited in the following ways:

1. Selling adulterated/defective goods: Shopkeepers and sellers can sell adulterated goods or
defective ones without the knowledge of the consumer. This can be very harmful to the
consumers. For example, when juice vendors sell pomegranate juice with artificial colour,
they sell adulterated juice.

2. Selling at a price higher than the MRP: It's illegal to sell a commodity at a price higher than
the maximum retail price. Consumers can bargain with the shopkeeper to sell it a lower
price.

3. Giving the wrong amount: Shopkeepers can weigh the goods using unauthorised weights
whose real weight consumer does not know of. This allows the shopkeeper to sell less at
more price.
4. False information is given to attract consumers. For example, a company claimed that its
powder milk was scientifically proven to be beneficial for babies and sold it in the market for
years. However, it was later discovered that those were false claims and that the powder
milk had never been certified by experts.

5. Traders and producers might sometimes hoard goods and create an artificial scarcity in
the market and then sell those hoarded goods at higher prices.
Factors causing Exploitation of Consumers:

6. Lack of bargaining power

7. Irregular prices offered

8. Misleading advertisements

9. Lack of unity and

10. Cumbersome and time taking legal proceedings.

Rise of Consumer Awareness:

Consumer Awareness is the process of making the consumer of goods and services aware of
his rights. It involves educating a consumer about safety, information and the redressal
options available to him.

consumer awareness is one of the most persistent problems the government faces when it
comes to consumer protection. To resolve this problem the government has come up with
various methods over the years. In fact, it is the main aim of the Department of Consumer
Affairs.

Till the 1960s, India was plagued with cases of hoarding, inadequate weighing and food
adulteration. These were problems that affected the well-being of the consumer and
amount to consumer exploitation. The consumer movement began in the 1960s and gained
momentum in the 1970s. Consumer dissatisfaction started to be demonstrated through the
written word and in articles and newspapers. The level of dissatisfaction with sellers and
manufacturers and their practices resulted in consumers raising their voice. Resultantly,
the government decided to give recognition to consumer protection by enacting
the Consumer Protection Act on 24th December 1986. The Act was aimed at protecting the
rights of the consumers and ensuring free trade in the market, competition and accurate
information to be available. This day is now observed as National Consumers’ Day.
One of the most important and successful Consumer Awareness campaign in recent times
has been the “Jago Grahak Jago” campaign. You must have certainly come across it. It is a
great example of successful consumer awareness.

Role of Consumer

The consumer is the one who pays something to consume goods and services produced. As
such, consumers play a vital role in the economic system of a nation. Without consumer
demand, producers would lack one of the key motivations to produce: to sell to consumers.
The consumer also forms part of the chain of distribution. Now that we have identified who
a consumer is, we can go on to outline some of the roles of consumers in marketing. They
are as follows:

1. Marketing Research: Consumers play a major role in marketing research before a product
or service is released to the public. Once you identify your target consumers, you can invite
these people to participate in focus groups or send them surveys to quiz them on key
elements of your marketing plan. Questioning them about the right price to charge and what
marketing message appeals to them as a consumer can help guide your entire plan,
particularly when releasing a new product or service.

2. Product Feedback: The consumer also plays a role in the feedback-gathering process after
a company’s offering hits the market. After implementing your marketing plan and releasing
the product or service, you need to track results and continually monitor consumer needs so
you can improve on the offering in the future.

3. Bring in New Consumers: Consumers also can act as agents to further the effects of your
marketing plan. With word-of-mouth marketing, consumers who have used your product
review it both offline and online and can refer other consumers to the product. This
marketing is free and very effective, as individuals tend to trust the word of people they
know when it comes to trying new products and services.
4. They promote credible publicity of the product.

Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

Consumer Rights is an insight into what rights consumer holds when it comes to seller which
provide the goods. What if the goods provided to the consumer by the business is not up to
the standard? Then in that case, what should a consumer do? To be precise, what rights
consumer have is in the court of law to fight against the malpractices of the business firms or
seller.
 • Right to Safety: This is the first and the most important of the Consumer Rights.
They should be protected against the product that hampers their safety. The
protection must be against any product which could be hazardous to their health
– Mental, Physical or many of the other factors.
• Right to Information: They should be informed about the product. The product
packaging should list the details which should be informed to the consumer and
they should not hide the same or provide false information.
• Right to Choose: They should not be forced to select the product. A consumer
should be convinced of the product he is about to choose and should make a
decision by himself. This also means consumer should have a variety of articles to
choose from. Monopolistic practices are not legal.
• Right to Heard: If a consumer is dissatisfied with the product purchased then they
have all the right to file a complaint against it. And the said complaint cannot go
unheard, it must be addressed in an appropriate time frame.
• Right to Seek Redressal: In case a product is unable to satisfy the consumer then
they have the right to get the product replaced, compensate, return the amount
invested in the product. We have a three-tier system of redressal according to
the Consumer Protection Act 1986.
• Right to Consumer Education: Consumer has the right to know all the information
and should be made well aware of the rights and responsibilities of the
government. Lack of Consumer awareness is the most important problem our
government must solve.

The consumer has a certain responsibility to carry as an aware consumer can bring changes
in the society and would help other consumers to fight the unfair practice or be aware of it.

• They should be aware of their rights under the Consumer Protection Act and
should practice the same in case of need.
• They should be well aware of the product they are buying. Should act as a
cautious consumer while purchasing the product.
• If in case a product is found of anything false or not satisfactory a complaint
should be filed.
• The consumer should ask for a Cash Memo while making a purchase.
• A customer should check for the standard marks that have been introduced for
the authenticity of the quality of the product like ISI or Hallmark etc.
How to complain and where to complain?
A dissatisfied consumer can file a complaint directly with the national commission or appeal
against decisions of the state commission within a month from the date of the order. The
court fee is Rs 5,000 and the demand draft should be in the name of The Registrar, National
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. There is no fee for filing an appeal before the
state or national commission. You can appeal against the orders of the national commission
in the Supreme Court within a period of 30 days.

By introducing the online form of complaint, the government has taken a greater step
towards resolving/addressing consumers' grievances in a speedy manner. The online
procedure can be considered as one of the friendly and fruitful procedure, especially during
the time of the pandemic. Further, the addition of alternative dispute resolution mechanism
is the step towards the achievement of peaceful settlement between the parties, which will
have greater impact on both the consumers and service providers in long term.

Legal measures available to protect from being exploited in market:

Till the 1970s there was unchecked consumer mistreatment happening in India. Black
marketing, monopolistic practices, adulteration of food were all commonplace. However, the
consumer movement brought about a change in the scenario. The government too provided
consumers legal protection through various laws and setting up of consumer court.

To protect consumer on legal terms, Court of Law i.e. Consumer Court has laid down certain
acts to protect the consumers on legal grounds. This Legal Protection keeps intact the right
of the consumer which when acted will provide them justice against any dissatisfaction
created by the sellers/business/manufacturer.

This legal Indian framework by Consumer Court also consists of large number of regulations
that are maintained strictly for the protection of consumers. Some of the Laws to protect
Consumers are as follows:

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (COPRA)

Indian Contract Act, 1972

The Sales of Good Act, 1930

The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954

The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976

Conclusion
Consumers are allowed to protect themselves products and services that are hazardous to
their lives and property from marketing cost fixes. They should have knowledge about
certified products, Check MRP, date of manufacturing, and expiry at the time of purchase of
a commodity. They must have awareness about their rights and duties. The right to obtain
information on the quantity, consistency, purity, strength, and quality of products and
services is the rights of the consumer.

I can conclude that very few of the consumers are fully aware of the rights and
consumer protection act. Hence it is necessary to educate them their rights as a consumer to
make them vigilant, rational and aware buyers. The government has been fruitful in
providing protection to the consumer in the real sense of the term and served the purpose
of the act.

Thus, this project discusses about the Consumer Exploitation and Awareness.

Learning Experience
Consumers are people who buy or use goods and services to satisfy their wants. Producers
are people who make or grow goods and provide services. The Consumers and Producers
are the backbone of Marketing. But, many of the consumers have been exploited/cheated
on by a few tricks played by the Producers. To protect the Consumers from being exploited,
the government has come up with many laws, acts and rights of consumers. But the sad part
is that, most of the consumers are totally unaware of this. And hence, the Consumer
Awareness campaigns came into existence to teach consumers their role, their rights, their
responsibilities and how to be an aware buyer.

Through this project, I have understood about the Consumer Exploitation, Consumer
Awareness and Legal measures to be taken from being exploited.

Bibliography

https://www.lawctopus.com

http://www.lawjournals.org

https://en.wikipedia.org

https://courses.lumenlearning.com