Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, launched two new initiatives aimed at enhancing consumer awareness and quick redressal of grievances
Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has launched two new initiatives of the Department of Consumer Affairs aimed at enhancing consumer awareness and strengthening support services to consumers in the country. These include a dedicated portal to register Grievances Against Misleading Advertisements (GAMA) and Grahak Suvidha Kendras — one-stop consumer centers at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi. Both the initiatives launched during a national conference on consumer rights, organised by the Department of Consumer Affairs, will further strengthen consumer protection.
Inaugurating the national conference before the launch of the initiatives, Ram Vilas Paswan reiterated the commitment of the government to consumer protection. He pointed out that government alone, regardless of the sector it deals with or the domain it regulates, cannot adequately address several of these challenges whether from the perspective of the market or that of the consumer. There is a need, he emphasised, for all stakeholders — the central government, state governments, voluntary consumer organisations and elected representatives to work together to achieve this. He urged that a consumer advocacy strategy should be adopted uniformly across sectors and geographies and must include consumer empowerment through awareness and education programs; enhancing the quality or type of information provided for products and services and standardising contracts to ensure that they are not unfair to the consumer. Mandating ethical firm behaviour by enforcing codes of conduct; extending a simple, speedy and affordable grievance redress window and using the institutional framework extant to reach out to the targeted consumer populations, especially in the rural areas should also be part of the strategy, he said.
In his welcome address Keshav Desiraju, secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, noted that the challenges that we confront would require policy coherence; coordinated program implementation, harmonisation of regulatory action and an institutional mechanism by which the interventions of government produce optimal results. It will also require harmonisation of the legislative framework and the regulatory apparatus. Towards this end, he said, the Department of Consumer Affairs has undertaken the task of modernising the legislative framework that governs consumer advocacy. Comprehensive amendments to the Consumer Protection Act as well as the Bureau of Indian Standards Act have been finalised to ensure timely executive interventions to ensure quality and safety of goods and services, prevention of unfair trade practices, address the problem of misleading advertisements, provide for speedy, simple and affordable consumer grievance redressal to enhance consumer protection.
On the occasion, Justice DK Jain, president of the National Consumer Disputes Resolution Commission (NCDRC) noted that India enjoys a unique position in the consumer advocacy movement with a dedicated three tier Quasi — Judicial Consumer Dispute Redress Mechanism established at the district, state and national levels under the law. He emphasised the need for governments at the centre and the states and the consumer courts to work closely together to provide effective and timely grievance redressal of the customers.
Two technical sessions of the conference, one on the Consumers Right to Safe and Healthy food and the second on the Performance of Consumer Courts saw experts and regulators drawing attention to an actionable plan to prevent consumer detriment and enhance access to safe products and services on the one hand and an effective and timely dispute resolution mechanism on the other.
The conference noted that consumer markets for goods and services have undergone profound transformation since the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act in 1986. The modern marketplace contains a plethora of increasingly complex products and services. The emergence of global supply chains, rise in international trade and rapid development of e-commerce have led to new delivery systems for goods and services and have provided new opportunities for consumers. Equally, this has rendered the consumer vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business practices.
Over 500 participants comprising voluntary consumer organisations, consumer activists, presidents of the state consumer commissions, sector regulators, academicians and diverse other stakeholders from across the country attended the conference.