Consumer rights in India: What’s in the past?

Annually, on December 24, the rights of all consumers are celebrated and promoted across India with the celebration of National Consumer Rights Day. Where the Western countries have properly established channels to ensure the rights of consumers, and the power in buying and selling of goods, India still lags behind in highlighting its national consumer movement and standing in solidarity with it. With the rising popularity of e-commerce websites and apps, it becomes inevitable to be aware of and exercise their rights as well as their responsibilities. 

The first serious step towards the rights of consumers in India was through the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. It aimed at safeguarding the interests of the consumers against exploitation such as selling defective goods, unfair trade, fraudulence and deficiency in service provisions. The Consumer Protection Act 1986 gives 6 basic rights to the consumers:

• Right to choose the product.
• Right to be protected from all kinds of hazardous goods.
• Right to be informed about the performance and quality of all products.
• Right to be heard in all decision-making processes related to consumer interests.
• Right to seek redressal, whenever consumer rights have been infringed.
• Right to complete consumer education.

The transformation in the Indian economy after the liberalisation policies of 1991, significantly changed the ways in which Indians shop and travel. With a wider range of markets at disposal, there was a tendency of buying more and more goods and consuming more services. The nation witnessed rising market competition, innovations and an expansion in the availability of options. But along with this, several inherent problems emerged too. The tried and trusted habits of consumers were disrupted, which necessitated the demands of bringing a revision to the existing set of laws. Taking these dynamics into consideration, India’s Parliament passed the updated and revised Consumer Protection Bill(commonly known as CPB/CPA) on August 6, 2019. Thereafter, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution declared July 20, 2020, for the CPA 2019 to come into effect

Both these acts of 1986 and 2019 were complemented by the Right to Information Act which ensured transparency in the governance policies and processes. These include rights to safety, right to information, the right to choose, right to be heard or right to representation, right to seek redressal, and the right to consumer education. 

Taking inspiration from the global level observance of  Consumer Rights Day on March 15 every year from 1983 onwards, India, after the enactment of the 1986  bill decided to observe the 24th of December as National Consumer Day. The purpose was to spread awareness to consumers as illustrated from “Jago Grahak Jago” about their importance, rights and responsibilities as a consumer. Themes are also observed every year on this day.

The theme for this year’s Consumers day is “Tackling Plastic Pollution” This theme was opted by the ministry of consumer affairs to educate people on the hazards of using plastics and to promote awareness in consumers to opt for alternative options to plastic.