Economics [4 marks Question-Answer]

Duties of a consumer
(i) He should look at the quality of the product as well as on guarantee or warrantee period.
(ii) He should ask for cash memo and warranty card.
(iii) He should be aware of his rights.
(iv) He should know how to make a complaint To conclude, we say that an alert consumer or a safe consumer.

Reasons for Consumer Exploitation in India
(i) Consumers in India lack information about the products.
(ii) Consumers are exploited when there are few powerful producers/sellers. Absence of adequate competition causes exploitation of consumers.
(iii) Producers/sellers provide limited information about the different aspects of the product.

A consumer is a person who takes decisions about what to buy for satisfaction of his wants.
→ Importances education involves informing buyers about the services or products they propose to buy.
→ Consumer education helps protect consumers from business malpractices, such as false advertisements.
→ It also gives them information to make sound decisions based on facts.

Consumer's awareness means consciousness of the consumer towards his/her rights and duties.
The following are the rights of consumers as confined in the Indian laws :
(i) right to safety
(ii) right to be informed
(iii) right to choose
(iv) right to be heard
(v) right to seek redressal
(vi) right to consumer education.

Five ways in which consumers are exploited :
Exploitation by Retailers
(i) Goods sold to consumers are sometimes not measured or weighted correctly.
(ii) Sometimes, sub-standard goods are sold to the consumers. In the name of genuine goods, duplicate goods are sold to them.
(iii) In costly edible items such as oil, ghee and spices, adulteration is made to earn higher profits.
Explotation by Producers
(i) The sellers sometimes do not provide the satisfactory after-sale service in case of many high cost durable items such as electronic equipments, cars etc.
(ii) Large companies sometimes give false and misleading information.

Growth of Consumer Awareness in India : In India, the concept of consumer protection is not new. However, organised and systematic movement to safeguard the interest of consumers is a recent phenomenon. This developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the growing liberalisation of the economy. The government legislated a law in the year 1986 known as the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

Distributing essential commodities through Public Distribution System (PDS) is an administrative measure. Public distribution system is the system under which foodgrains are procured by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) at pre-announced prices and then distributed through government regulated fair price shops among the poorest section of the society. PDS with a network of 5.5 lakhs fair price shops (also known as ration shops) is perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world. It is operated under the joint responsibility of the central and state governments. Apart from ensuring food security to the poor, the PDS is also expected to prevent hoarding, black marketing and over-charging by traders.

Legal measures for the empowerment of consumers :
(i) Consumer Protection Act 1986
(ii) Right to Information Act 2005

Technical measures consist of standardisation of the products. The standardisation of products means protecting the consumers from substandard and varying standard of goods. Standardisation saves the consumers from malpractices. It ensures high quality of product. Under standardisation of products, government lays down the accepted guidelines with regard to how a product or service is created. For maintaining these minimum standards, government has created Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Agmark. The BIS is for industrial and consumer goods, while Agmark is meant for agricultural products. BIS was earlier known as Indian Standards Institution (ISI), whose headquarter is located in New Delhi. It has the responsibility of laying down the standards for industrial and consumer goods on a scientific basis and certifying the goods that meet the standards and the prescribed quality. In case of dissatisfaction with the quality of a certified product, a consumer can complain to the nearest regional office of the BIS.