Green Valley Sr. Sec.

School

•Social Studies Project

•Consumer Awareness
•Guided By: Sonia Ma’am
•Presented By: SHREYANSH SURANA
•Class & Section: 10th- C
•Roll No.: 27
 Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks for gratitude to
my teacher Mrs. Sonia Dixit as well as our principal
Mrs. Ravinder Kaur who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic
Consumer Awareness which also helped me in doing a
lot of research and I came to know about so many new
things I am really thankful to them for this project.
Secondly I would also like to thank my Parents and
Friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project
within the limited time frame.

Date: 18-6-2019
SHREYANSH SURANA
10-C
 Content:
Consumer Awareness:
 What are consumers?
 Consumer in the marketplace.
 Consumer movement.
 Consumer rights.
 Well informed consumers.
 ISI and Agmark.
 Consumer courts.
 Consumer awareness.
 Conclusion
 Consumer
Q.: What is consumer?
A.:A consumer is one that buys goods for
consumption and not for the resale or comercial
purpose or a consumer is an individual who plays
some amount of money or the thing required to
consume goods and services produced. As such,
consumer play a vital role in the economic system
of a nation. Without consumer’s demand ,
producers would lack one of the key motivation to
produce: To sell to consumer. The consumer also
forms part of the chain of distribution .
Recently in marketing generating board
demographic profiles and Fisio-graphic
profiles of market segment, marketers have
started to engage in personalized , marketing
and mass customization.
Largely due to the rise of the internet,
consumers are shifted more and more
towards becoming “prosumers”, consumers
who are also producer (Often of information
and media on the social web).
 The Consumer In The Market Place
• Rules and regulations are required for the
protection of the consumers in the marketplace.
• Exploitation in the marketplace happens often.
• Markets do not work in affair manner when
producers are few and powerful whereas
consumers purchase in small amounts and are
scattered. This happens especially when large when
large companies are producing these goods. These
companies with huge wealth, power and reach can
multipulate the market. At that time, false
information is passed on through the media, and
other sources and to attract consumers.
Q.: What is the role of the consumer in
Marketplace?
A.: The role of a consumer in market place is
very important because it is consumer who
demand good’s and service’s.
When they do this, they make it so that other
people can have job making the good’s and
service’s that consumers wants.
 Consumer Movements
• In India, the consumer movements 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, hoardings, black
marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil
give birth to the consumer movement in an
organised form in the 1960’s.
• Till the 1970’s, consumer organizations 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 Rights
• Q.: What are consumer rights?
• A.: Consumer rights are generally a reference to a
body of law that pertains to things the producers of
goods must do to protect customers from harm.
These laws have come into existence through a
series of legal disputes and have been shaped by
the results of those cases. In a few instances, some
states have actually codified regulations that they
refer to as “Consumer Rights’’ laws, but this is not
yet that majority practice and even these
codifications may not cover all the principles that
are generally considered “Consumer Rights”.
 Consumer Rights Include
• The right to safety.
• The right to be informed.
• The right to choose.
• The right to seek redressal.
• The right to represent in consumer courts.
 The Right To Safety
According to the Consumer Protection Act 1986, the
consumer right is referred to as ‘Right to be
protected against marketing of goods and Services’
which are hazardous to life and property. It is
applicable to specific areas like health care,
pharmaceutical and food processing, this right is
spread across the domain having serious effect on
the health of the consumers, their will being viz.
Automobiles, housing, domestic appliances, travel
etc. When there is violation of the rights then there
occurs medical malpractice lawsuits in the country.
It is estimated every year that thousands or
millions of citizens of India are killed or
seriously injured by the immoral practices by
doctors, hospitals pharmacies and the
automobile industry, still the government of
India, known for its callousness does not
succeed in acknowledging the facts or a feeble
efforts for maintaining statics of the mishaps.
 Right To Be Informed
This article is about the Indian federal law. For
freedom of information in other countries, an
act to provide for setting out the practical
regime of Right To Information for citizens to
secure information under control of public
authorities, in order to promote transparency
and account ability in the, the constitution of a
Central Information Commission and for
matters connected there with or incident there
to.
Right To Information (RTI) is an act of the parliament
of India to provide for setting out the practical
regime of the right to information for citizens and
replaces the erstwhile freedom of Information
Act, 2002. Under the provisions of the act, any
citizen of India may request information for a
“public authority” (a body of government or
“instrumentality of state”).Which is required to
reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The act
also requires every public authority to
computerize their records for wide dissemination
and to proactively certain categories of
information so that the citizen needs minimum
recourse to request for information formally.
 The law was passed by parliament on 15th
June 2005 and came fully into force on 12th
October 2005. Everyday, over 4800 RTI
applications had been filed.
Information disclosure in India is
restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and
various other special laws, which the new RTI
Act relaxes. Right To Information codifies a
fundamental rights whist leblowrs Act .
 The Right To Choose
The defination of Right To Choose as per the
Consumer Protection Act 1986 is ‘the right to be
assured, wherever possible, to have access to a
variety of goods and services at competitive price’.
For regulating the market place, there is just one
factor required and that is the competition. The
existence of cartels, oligopolies and monopolies
prove to be counter productive to consumerism.
The natural resources, liquor industry,
telecommunication, airlines etc. all are being
controlled by a mafia to some or the other extent.
 Since the Indian consumers come from a
socialistic background, the tolerating of
monopolistic market is found in their blood. It
is seldom seen that people wants to switch
the power company, in the times when they
have a blackout at home. It is interesting to
know that even micro market like fish vendors
in some cities are known as collude and
discourage the consumer’s bargaining power.
 Right To Represent
According to this right the consumer has the right
to represent him or to be heard or right to advocate
his interest. In case a consumer has been exploited
or has any complain against the product or service
then he has the right to be heard and be assured
that his/her interest would receive due
consideration.
This right includes the right to representation in the
government and in other policy making bodies.
Under this right the companies must have
complaint cells to attend the complaints of
consumers.
Q.: What is consumer right to represent?
A.: Consumer forums or consumer protection
councils are organizations that help to
represent consumer interests. They guide
consumers in the process of filing complaints
in the court when they are exploited and also
helps in spreading consumer protection
awareness.
 The Right To Seek Redressal
The Right To Seek Redressal against unfair
trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation
of consumer’s is referred to as the Right To
Redressal according to the Consumer
Protection Act 1986. The government of India
has been bit more successful with regard to
this right. The consumer courts like District
Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums at
district level. State Consumer Disputed
Redressal Commissions and National have
been incorporated with the help of the
consumer protection act.
These consumer grievance redressal agencies have
fiduciary as well as geographical jurisdictions which
address consumer cases between business and
consumers.
About 20 Lakhs consumer forum, and around one
Crore can be heard in the State Consumer Court
while more than one Crore are heard at National
Consumer Court. It has been found to be informed
that one becomes guardian of consumer protection
or consumer rights in the country these courts
today are found to be inefficient because of
bureaucratic sabotages, clogged cases, callousness
of government and, decadent infrastructure.
Only some of the district forums have
appointed officials for time being and majority
of them are non – functional because of
funding and infrastructure constraints. There
are around 20-30 million open cases in India
which remain unsolved and would like to take
around 320 years to wind up. Having such
type of compromised legal system the
consumer cases form just civil litigations and
are carried forward to the bottom of the
priority list. It estimated that India is 10 years
away in effectively ensuring the right of
redressal to every consumer of India.
 Well Informed Consumer
A consumer is should become a well informed
consumer to help himself from being exploited by
various shopkeepers and producers. A educated
consumer buys the good by seeing every single detail
about the product which is his/her right to have
information under RTI (Right To Information). Which
includes information like batch number, manufacturing
date, expiry date, MRP (Maximum Retail Price) etc. A
well informed consumer will not been exploited by
shopkeepers by selling defective goods or using
defective measures. If the consumer is been somehow
exploited his/her can directly approach to district court
to file a case against the shopkeeper or producer.
 ISI And Ag-mark
ISI is a certification mark for industrial products in
India. It is the most popular and recognized
certification mark in India subcontinent. This mark
ensures that the product confirms to the Indian
Standards Institute (ISI) is known as BIs (Bureau of
Indian Standards). It checks the quality and
standards of every product and provides them
certification by a legislation of 1986. ISI mark is
mandatory for certifying products to be sold in
India. Any manufacturing industries whose product
meets the BIs standards can apply for ISI product
certificate.
Almost all categories of Non- Agri Products i.e.
industrial and personal use products including
consumer durables and precious metals come under its
purview.
Agmark is a certification mark employed on agricultural
products in India, assuring that they conform to a set of
standards approved by the Directorate Of Marketing
And Inspection, an agency of the government of India.
The term Agmark was coined by joining the words ‘Ag’-
to mean agriculture and ‘mark’ for a certification mark.
This term was introduced originally in the bill presented
in the parliament of India for the Agricultural Produce
(grading and marketing) Act.
Almost all categories of agricultural produce for sale in
the market/consumption with some exceptions come
under it purview.
 Consumer Court
Consumer court is a special purpose courts in India that
deals with cases regarding consumer disputes, conflicts
and grievances. These are judiciary hearings set up by
the government to protect the consumer’s right. Its
main function is to maintain the fair practices and fair
contracts by sellers. Consumers can file a case against a
seller if they are cheated or exploited by sellers. The
courts will only give a verdict in favor of the
consumers/customers if they have proof of
exploitation, i.e., bills or purchase memos. If a
consumer does not have a proper documents required
for filing a case then it would be very difficult for the
consumer to win or even file a case.
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
(NCDRC): A national level court works for the whole
country and deals compensation claimed exceeds
rupees one crore. The National commission is the
Apex body of consumer courts, it is also the highest
Consumer courts in the hierarchy.
State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
(SCDRC): A state level courts works at the state level
with cases where compensation claimed is above
20 lakhs but up to one crore. The state commission
also has appellate jurisdiction over the District
Forum.
 District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum
(DCDRF): A district level court works at the district
level with cases where the compensation claimed is
up to 20 lakhs.
Q.: How does a consumer can file a case in Consumer
Court?
A.: Get the consumer complaint drafted. It is always
effective to hire a consumer case at a complaint has
to be filed in the correct consumer court which has
the jurisdiction to deal with a case.
 Consumer Awareness
A consumer awareness is a part of a
company’s marketing and
communications plan. It is a process that
helps an entrepreneur educate customers
about his/her company, its performance
and the product or services of his/her
company delivers. A well designed
awareness program ensure better
customer engagement and protects
consumer welfare.
Two steps to build consumer awareness:
1: In the first stage, a company creates awareness by
pointing out the pain points of the costumers. The
company need to talk more about the problems at
this stage. The intention is to make consumer aware
of the pervading problem in this they are not
already. Raise awareness using a very logical
message.
2: Give consumers a solution as the best way to that
problem in the second step. Get customer’s
attraction by presenting your solution as the best
way to solve the respective problems.
 Conclusion
• The consumers are generally not aware of their
rights and duties.
• This allows the producers to cheat the consumers
and gain profit.
• The government does very little to make the
consumers aware.
• The court procedures takes a very long time and
money required.
• The consumer often forget to obtain a cash memo
of the purchase.
• The consumers may also be cheated by the sellers
as they are not aware of M.R.P.
Thank You For Seeing
This Project