Consumer Education

A consumer in today’s world is one who falls prey to the advertisements and promotions of companies. We are all consumers in the sense that we watch movies in theatres, buy from the supermarkets or purchase new clothes from the retail shops like Van Heusen, Zudio, Max, etc.

A consumer culture is also known as consumerism. Consumerism has its good effects and bad effects. The positive points in consumerism is that it gives one varied choices to buy and induces a competitive culture in many companies. The negative effects is that, it can lead to exploitation of the illiterate and ignorant.

As Scouts and Guides we have the social responsibility of making consumers aware of their rights and duties. They need to make people aware of the exploitation that takes place by retailers and trade companies.

Reasons for Consumer Exploitation

-        No unity amongst consumers: While producers have trade unions and are usually well-connected with each other, the consumers are not united. And so, the consumers become easy targets for exploitation.

-        Illiteracy: An illiterate person is one who does not know how to read and write. Because of this disability of theirs, they can be easily exploited by the retailers and producers.

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    Ignorance: Producers often ignore the needs of the consumers. The consumers have to usually buy what is available in the market and not what they want. The things available in the market are suggested by the trade companies as better than what the consumers want when actually they may be of low-quality.

-        Low Quality products: With the rise in consumerism, producers have found a way of exploiting consumers. They produce expensive but short-lived products making the consumer but more frequently.

-        Accumulation of things: Consumerism also leads people to accumulate more goods. They buy and buy products because it is promoted by the retailers. The shift moves more from the wants than on the needs.

-        Misleading advertisements: The goal of the trade companies is to do business. And so, the y go to any extent to promote their goods even it means that they have to make false promises.

-        Difference in weight and volume of products: To gain more profit sometimes, producers and retail companies sell products that have less volume or weight as compared to what is mentioned on the packaging.

Consumer Protection Act

In order to protect consumers from being exploited the trade companies, the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 was enacted. It gave the consumers the power to complain when they have been exploited and then eventually getting their problem solved. This activity is what is called the Consumer Complaint Redressal. Thus, when an injury or a loss of property takes place due to the malfunction of a brand-new product, the retail company would have to compensate for it by paying the consumer a particular amount of money.

In India, the government has facilitated redressal at three levels.

-        The District Form – at the district level

-        The State Commission – at the state level

-        and, The National Commission – at the national level

Consumer Rights and Duties

The rights of a consumer are as follows:

-        Right to safety

-        Right to information

-        Right to choose

-        Right to be heard

-        Right to seek redressal

-        Right to consumer education

-        Right to environment

The duties of a consumer are as follows:

-        The consumer needs to check the products he/she is buying to ensure that it is safe.

-        Ask for a proper receipt when purchasing from a shop. This becomes a proof for you if the product bought is faulty

-        Control your use of spending and collecting a lot of waste. This will also help in reducing and controlling pollution.

-        Play an active role in being a consumer educator and attending consumer education seminars.

-        Have the basic knowledge of goods and services.