Lesson No. 5

Consumer Rights

Rights of Consumers :

Rights which are provided by law :

- Right to safety

- Right to be informed - Right to choose

- Right to be heard - Right to seek redressal

- Right to consumer education.

Factors causing exploitation of Consumers :

- Limited information

- Limited supplies

- Limited competition

- Low literacy

Duties of Consumers :

- To purchase quality marked products such as ISI, AGMARK etc.

- To ask for cash memo for the items purchased whenever possible.

- To make complaint for genuine grievances consumers must know their rights and must

exercise them.

Demerits of Consumer Redressal Process :

- The Consumer Redressal Process is becoming cumbersome expensive and time consuming.

- Many a time, consumers are required to engage lawyers. These cases require time for

filling and attending the court proceedings etc.

- In most purchases cash memos are not issued hence evidence is not easy together.

- Most purchases in the market are small retail sales.

- The enforcement of laws that protect workers, especially in the unorganised sectors is

weak.

- Rules and regulations for working of markets are often not followed.

Consumer Protection Act - 1986 (COPRA)

- To protect and promote the interest of consumers.

- Under COPRA a three-tier quasi-judicial machinery at the district, state and national

levels is set up for redressal of consumer disputes.

- The district level court deals with the cases involving claims upto Rs. 20 lakhs; The

State level courts between Rs. 20 lakhs and Rs. 1 crore and the national level court

deals with cases involving claims exceeding Rs. 1 crore.

Questions :

1. Mention the Rights to consumers and write two sentences on each.

2. Explain the factors which cause exploitation of consumers.

3. Describe some of your duties as consumers if you visit a shopping complex in your locality.

4. Mention the demerits of consumer redressal process.

5. Explain Consumer Protection Act - 1986.

MCQ

1. A consumer

(i) Sells goods and services (ii) Buy goods and services

(iii) Produces goods and services (iv) Delivers goods and services

2. Adulteration is

(i) Selling defective items (ii) Overpricing

(iii) Underweight measurement (iv) Mixing cheap materials

3. Causes of consumer exploitation

(i) Right to Information (ii) Proper Supply (iii) Low literacy (iv) High literacy

4. Which is not a function of PDS

(i) Control Hoarding (ii) Control Prices

(iii) Control over charging (iv) Consumer Redressal

5. COPRA stands for

(i) Consumer Protection Act (ii) Consumer Prevention Act

(iii) Consumer Police Act (iv) Consumer Power Act

6. Pick odd one out

(i) Right to information (ii) Right to choice

(iii) Right to adulteration (iv) Right to redressal

7. Pick odd one out

(i) Right to safety (ii) Right to life

(iii) Right to consumer education (iv) Right to representation

8. National Consumer Day is celebrated in India

(i) 24 December (ii) 25 December (iii) 26 December (iv) 27 December

9. COPRA does not propose formation of

(i) National Consumer Court (ii) State Consumer Court

(iii) District Consumer Court (iv) High Court

10. ISO stands for

(i) International Standard Organization

(ii) International Organization for Standardization

(iii) International School Organization

(iv) International Standardization

SHORT QUESTION TYPE ANSWERS

Q.1 Why COPRA is enacted in India?

Ans. Consumer Protection Act 1986 (COPRA) is enacted in India with following motives:

(i) To pressurize business firms.

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(ii) To correct unfair business conduct.

(iii) To protect the interests of the consumers.

Q. 2 What do you understand by consumer protection?

Ans. By consumer protection we mean the protection of the consumers against the unfair and malpractices

adopted by the businessmen. These may be grouped mainly into two categories.

(i) Government measures

(ii) Voluntary measures

Q. 3 How do the logos ISI, Agmark or Hallmark help consumers?

Ans. These logos and certification help consumers get assured of quality while purchasing goods and services. The

organizations that monitor and issue the certificates allow the producers to use these logos provided they follow

certain quality standards.

Q. 4 What is adulteration?

Ans. When some foreign matter, injurious to health, is mixed with any good or natural production, it is called

adulteration. This is the most heinous crime against humanity.

Q. 5 Mention a few Organizations that provide certification of standardization in India.

What do you mean by ISO?

Ans. (i) BIS and ISI (ii) AGMARK (iii) HALLMARK

It means International Organization for Standardization which has its headquarter at Geneva. It does the

Standardization work at the international level.

Q. 6 What is the need for consumer awareness?

Ans. The need for consumer awareness was felt because both the manufacturers and traders can go to any extent

out of their selfishness. They can charge high prices, and resort to underweight and under measurement

methods. Their lust for money may lead to loss of money and health of consumers.

LONG QUESTION TYPE ANSWERS

Q.1 What are the different forms of consumer exploitation?

Ans. The different forms of consumer exploitation are:

(i) Less weigh. (ii) Defective goods. (iii) Provide poor services.

(iv) Impure quality of products/goods. (iv) High prices: sellers usually charge a price higher than the

prescribed retail price. (v) Duplicate Articles.

(vi) False or incomplete information, misleading consumers.

(vii) Lack of safety devices which cause harm to the consumers.

(vi) Adulteration: Mixing or substituting undesirable materials in food items etc.

(vii)Unsatisfactory after sale service: supplies do not provide satisfactory behavior.

(viii) Large companies with huge wealth, power and reach can manipulate in the market.

Q.2 What are the factors responsible for the consumer exploitation?

Ans. The following factors are responsible for the consumer exploitation:

(i) Limited information - For a correct decision and choice about a product, a consumer needs full information

about the price, quality, durability, composition, etc of the Product. In the absence of full and correct

information, a consumer may get exploited.

(ii) Limited supplies- when the supply of goods is less than their demand, the prices may go high and may also

encourage the tendency of hoarding. As a consequence, consumers will get exploited.

(iii) Limited competition-when there is limited competition with regard to production i.e., when producers are

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few and can control and restrict the supply of a product there is a possibility of manipulation in prices.

(iv) Low literacy-Illiteracy causes ignorance, which leads to exploitation of consumers. The level of awareness

in our country is generally low.

Q.3 What are consumer protection councils?

OR

Q. What are consumer forums?

Ans. These are voluntary organizations locally known as consumer forums or consumer protection councils. The

main activities of the consumer forums or consumer protection councils are:

(i) They guide consumers on how to file cases in the consumer court.

(ii) They may represent individual consumers in the consumer courts.

(iii) They create awareness among the people.

These voluntary organizations receive financial support from the government for the above purposes.

Answer Key of MCQ:

1(ii) 2(iv) 3(iii) 4(iv) 5(i) 6(iii)

7(ii) 8(i) 9(iv) 10(ii)