Name-
Class -
Roll no. -
Acknowledgement
I would like to convey my heartiest thanks to our Economics teacher __________ and to our principal __________, for their constant support and indigenious ideas. They have helped me a lot in completion this project.
Secondly, I would like to thank my fellow classmates, my parents and also my friends, who have helped me out regarding any problem that I faced in preparing this project. They provided me with their valuable suggestions and guidance in this project.
INDEX
Step 1 Front page.
Step 2 Topic name.
Step 3 Index
Step 4 Introduction.
Step 5 Objectives
Step 6 Who are the consumers?
Step 7 Consumer Protection and the common problems faces by Consumers in the Market.
Step 8 Consumer Movement in India.
Step 9 Consumer Protection Act 1986
1. Three Tier System.
2. Consumer Rights.
Step 10 Learning to Become a Well Informed Consumer.
1. Consumer Responsibilities.
2. Quality Standard Marks.
Step 11 Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Today, we go to market and buy a variety of goods and avail services in our day-to-day life. For the same, we pay money and derive satisfaction by consuming them. But sometimes, we feel dissatisfied due to poor quality, high prices, false promises, made in advertisements, hidden information, costs, etc., and so on. This is done because we are, not aware of our rights as a consumer.
Therefore, the need for consumer awareness was coined by the Western World in the 1960s. It is a social force designed to protect the interest of the consumers by organizing the consumers to bring pressure on the business community to heed their say. Moreover, The pressure may be moral, legal, or economic. It is a combined effort of the consumers to seek redressal of their grievances adversely affecting their standard of living. It is the protest against unfair business practices and injustices. Understand the significance of Consumer Rights as a crucial aspect of consumer protection. Gain insights into the importance of informed choices and responsible consumer behavior.
The objective of the project is to
•Reduce consumer exploitation by making them aware, of their rights as a consumer.
• Providing complete knowledge about a particular product to potential customers.
• To provide complete and adequate knowledge to the customer.
• Prohibit the customers from taking any wrong decisions.
• Analyze the suitability of the product with particular buyers.
• Interpret the needs of the customers more efficiently.
• Achieve maximum satisfaction of the buyers and customers.
Who is a Consumer?
Under the Consumer Protection Act, a consumer is defined as:
Any person who buys any goods for a consideration, which has been paid or promised, or partly, paid and partly promised, or under any scheme of deferred payment. It includes any user of such, goods when such use is made with the approval of the buyer but does not include a person who obtains goods for resale or any other commercial purpose.
Any person who hires or avails of any service, for a consideration which has been paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment.
It includes any, the beneficiary of services when such services are availed of with the approval of the person concerned, but does not include a person who avails of such services for any commercial purpose.
Consumer Protection and Common Problems faced by a Consumer in Market Place, Consumer awareness refers to the measures adopted to safeguard the interest and rights of consumers and to help them in getting their grievances redressed.
Finally, Consumer protection means, protecting the consumers from unscrupulous, exploitative, and unfair trade practices of a seller or, a producer to maximize their profits.
Consumer Protection and the common problems faces by Consumers in the Market.
There are many problems which are faced by consumers such as illiteracy, wrong or lack of information, adulteration, no fair return etc.
Explanation:
Targeting consumer interests is a common strategy used by firms today to offer their goods. If a company unit wants to succeed, it must not dare to neglect its customers. However, despite numerous rules and laws, customers continue to face a variety of issues.
Here we will discuss some major problems which are faced by consumers in retail or online markets:
1. Lack of Information or wrong information: In today's scenario many businesses are selling their products through digital advertising which somehow manipulates the information about their products.
2. Illiteracy: Most customers in urban and rural areas lack basic digital literacy, making it difficult for them to comprehend sales tactics or how to use items properly.
3. No Fair Return: Even when the buyer pays a premium amount for the things they buy, they frequently are not satisfied with their purchases.
4. Exploitation: The sellers in the Indian market take advantage of the customers. Sellers inflate prices, stockpile, promote black market products, and create artificial scarcity.
5. Adulteration: Most of the time, despite paying a high price, consumers do not receive pure or, perhaps more accurately, high-quality items. For the purpose of maximising profits, the organisation typically provides contaminated commodities.
6. Irregular Supply: One of the frequent problems consumers face is an erratic availability of goods. This is a result of the lack of the product. The groups artificially create scarcity and raise prices by necessities.
CONSUMER MOVEMENT IN INDIA
The consumer movement arose out of dissatisfaction of the consumers as many unfair practices were being indulged in by the sellers. There was no legal system available to consumers to protect them from exploitation in the market place. For a long time, when a consumer was
not happy with a particular brand product or shop, he or she generally avoided buying that brand product, or would stop purchasing from that shop. It was presumed that it was the responsibility of consumers to be careful while buying a commodity
or service. It took many years for organisations in India, and around the world, to create awareness
amongst people. This has also shifted the responsibility of ensuring quality of goods and services on the sellers.
In India, the consumer movement as a ‘social force’ originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices. Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organised form in the 1960s. Till the 1970s, consumer organisations were largely
engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions. They formed consumer groups to look into the
malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in the road passenger transport. More recently, India
witnessed an upsurge in the number of consumer groups.
Consumer Protection Act 1986:
The Consumer Protection Bill, of 1986 seeks to provide for better protection of the interests of consumers and for the purpose, to make provision for the establishment of Consumer councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumer disputes and for matters connected therewith. It also ensures speedy and simple redressal of consumer disputes,
1. THREE TIER SYSTEM
The government established a three-tier system of redressal under the Consumer Protection Act. It includes the district, state, and national level consumer dispute redressal fora. This three-tier system of redressal courts ensures that the consumers have the assurance of speedy justice with simple procedures and fewer expenses.
The three tier machinery under the Consumer Protection Act for redressal of consumers grievances consists of:
i District Forum: The District Forum consists of a President and two other members one of whom should be a woman. They all are appointed by the State Government concerned. A complaint can be made to the appropriate District Forum when the value of the goods or services in question along with the compensation claimed does not exceed Rs.20 lakhs. On receiving the complaint the District Forum shall refer the complaint to the party against whom the complaint is filed. If required the goods or a sample there of shall be sent for testing in a laboratory. The District Forum shall pass an order after considering the test report from the laboratory and hearing to the party against whom the complaint is filed. In case the aggrieved party is not satisfied with the order of the District Forum he can appeal before the State Commission within 30 days of the passing of the order.
ii State Commission: Each State Commission consists of a President and not less than two other members one of whom should be a woman. They are appointed by the State Government concerned. A complaint can to be made to the appropriate State Commission when the value of the goods or services in question along with the compensation claimed exceeds Rs.20 lakhs but does not exceed Rs.1 crore. The appeals against the orders of a District Forum can also be filed before the State Commission. On receiving the complaint the State Commission shall refer the complaint to the party against whom the complaint is filed. If required the goods or a sample there of shall be sent for testing in a laboratory. The State Commission shall pass an order after considering the test report from the laboratory and hearing to the party against whom the complaint is filed. In case the aggrieved party is not satisfied with the order of the State Commission he can appeal before the National Commission within 30 days of the passing of the order.
iii National Commission: The National Commission consists of a President and at least four other members one of whom should be a woman. They are appointed by the Central Government. A complaint can to be made to the National Commission when the value of the goods or services in question along with the compensation claimed exceeds Rs.1 crore. The appeals against the orders of a State Commission can also be filed before the National Commission. On receiving the complaint the National Commission shall refer the complaint to the party against whom the complaint is filed. If required the goods or a sample thereof shall be sent for testing in a laboratory. The National Commission shall pass an order after considering tire test report from the laboratory and hearing to the party against whom the complaint is filed.
2. Consumer Rights.
Learning to Become a Well Informed Consumer.
Consumer Awareness is an act of making sure the buyer or consumer is aware of the information about products, goods, services, and consumers rights. Consumer awareness is important so that buyer can take the right decision and make the right choice. Consumers have the right to information, right to choose, right to safety. Let us learn more about Consumer rights, responsibilities and consumer awareness in detail.
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.
Consumer Rights
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.
Consumer Responsibilities
Responsibility to be aware – A consumer has to be mindful of the safety and quality of products and services before purchasing.
Responsibility to think independently– Consumer should be well concerned about what they want and need and therefore make independent choices.
Responsibility to speak out- Buyer should be fearless to speak out their grievances and tell traders what they exactly want
Responsibility to complain- It’s consumer responsibility to express and file a complaint about their dissatisfaction with goods or services in a sincere and fair manner.
Responsibility to be an Ethical Consumer- They should be fair and not engage themselves with any deceptive practice.
QUALITY STANDARD MARK
Mark is a standardization mark issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to certify that the products conform to the minimum quality standards. The Product Certification Scheme of BIS aims at providing Third Party Guarantee of quality, safety and reliability of products to the customer.
CONCLUSION
The Consumer Protection Act is way too complicated, it is constantly changing and it includes various jurisdictions, even though there are separate courts established for consumer right to practice. The main motto of consumers right is described in the following: –
The primary goal of having consumer rights is to make sure that the consumers get the cash worth of goods and services
Consumers have the right to prevent products and services that are hazardous to their life and property from marketing cost fixes
The right to obtain information about the size, quality, quantity, and materials included within the product or services is the right of a consumer
A Consumer has the right to get informed about the product or service
It is also a responsibility of a consumer to have the product or service at a fair price
No comments:
Post a Comment