– Kesav Desiraju IAS –
Consumer markets for goods and services have undergone profound transformation in recent years. The emergence of global supply chains, rise in international trade and the rapid development of e-commerce have opened new opportunities for consumers. Equally, this has rendered the consumers vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business practices.
Taking the benefits of good governance to the common citizen by way of policy coherence; coordinated programme implementation; harmonization of regulatory action and an institutional mechanism to produce optimal results is the mandate of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA).
Soon after the new government took over, urgent steps were initiated to moderate the price rise that had characterised the market for essential commodities. On 04.07.2014 a national conference of the Food Ministers of all States and Union Territories was held. The conference adopted a plan of action to mitigate the inflationary pressures particularly on food prices. Prices of perishable commodities do increase between July and December. States were urged to take action to prevent hoarding and black marketing as well as to strengthen the supply and distribution of essential commodities during this period. This coordinated action by the Central Government and the States helped in keeping the prices of perishable essential commodities lower than in the corresponding period in 2013.
The DCA has finalised comprehensive amendments to the Consumer Protection Act as well as the Bureau of Indian Standards Act to ensure that the consumer disputes redress mechanism serves the consumers with quick, inexpensive and simple redress of their grievances, establish an institutional arrangement to prevent unfair trade practices, incorporate the concept of product liability in consumer protection and enable mediation as an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) arrangement.
The DCA is one of the departments with a fully operational e-office programme. Most of the work we do is online and the vast majority of our files are electronic files. We are also developing e-applications for the benefit of consumers that will provide for transparency, and speed of decision making.
The DCA seeks to empower consumers through awareness and education; enhance consumer protection through prevention of unfair trade practices; enable quality assurance and safety through standards and their conformity; and ensure access to an affordable and effective grievance redress mechanism.
The Legal Metrology Division of the Department of Consumer Affairs, by implementing the Legal Metrology Act 2009, safeguards the interests of Consumers to get the correct quantity for the price charged by ensuring use of the correct weights and measures.
Consumers are entitled to quality assurance and safety of all products that they buy and the services that they use. Quality assurance and safety are facilitated by prescribing stringent standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body of India. The ISI mark of the BIS is synonymous with quality and safety. The BIS has taken several measures to promote a culture of quality in the manufacturing process. It has developed over 19000 quality standards and over 28000 licensees who use the ISI quality mark in manufacturing their products.
The DCA has finalized major amendments to the BIS Act. These amendments seek to strengthen the quality assurance regime for goods and services in India; prevent the entry of sub-standard goods; eliminate the dumping of poor quality products; provide for ease of doing business in India and make the market surveillance and testing of products more stringent. The list of products under mandatory certification will be expanded significantly to provide Indian consumers products of better quality. This transformation in our quality assurance eco system will catalyze the ‘zero defect, zero effect’ approach under the Make in India campaign.
The Jago Grahak Jago multimedia campaign is an initiative of the Department of Consumer Affairs towards consumer education and awareness. The Jago Grahak Jago campaign has used diverse media to reach out to the consumers in a vast country like India. An open forum discussion has been launched on www.mygov.in platform to create awareness amongst the consumers by involving them in discussions. Services of various Voluntary Consumer Organizations, Schools etc. are being utilized to spread awareness. New media platform like community radio and social networking sites such as facebook, twitter are being progressively used in creating awareness.
The thrust of the efforts of the DCA has been on the key sectors that impact all consumers: agriculture, food, housing, healthcare, transport, financial services and education. Joint campaigns have been launched in partnership with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise awareness on the rights of consumers. The campaigns reflect the government’s determination to address issues that affect the common man such as food adulteration, food safety, quality assurance, misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices.
Asymmetry in market information, deterritorialisation of the market, and the explosive growth of advertising has constrained Consumer Sovereignty. Hence the emphasis of the new government onseamless consumer advocacy on a government- wide basis by which the common consumers are better protected.
An inter-ministerial Group on Consumer Advocacy has been established with the Secretary, DCA as the chair. This group has now initiated several significant steps for consumer protection and welfare. These include specific actions to set quality assurance and safety standards for goods and services in diverse sectors under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan as well as the Make in India Campaign.
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 provides a three-tier quasi-judicial consumer dispute resolution mechanism in the country to adjudicate complaints filed before them and to provide speedy redress to the consumers. This includes:
The National Consumer Disputes Redress Commission (National Commission) at the apex with territorial jurisdiction over the whole country and pecuniary jurisdiction to consider consumer disputes/complaints involving claims above Rs.1.00 crore and with appellate jurisdiction over State Commissions.
36 State Consumer Disputes redress Commissions (State Commissions) with territorial jurisdiction over the State/ UT concerned and financial jurisdiction to entertain consumer complaints involving claims above Rs.20.00 lakhs and up to Rs.1.00 crore and with appellate jurisdiction over the District Fora.
644 District Consumer Dispute Redress Fora (District Forum) with territorial jurisdiction over the district and pecuniary jurisdiction up to Rs.20.00 lakhs.
The DCA operates a Price Monitoring Cell (PMC) tasked with monitoring prices of select essential commodities. This monitoring is done in respect of both retail and wholesale prices on a daily basis. The Cell monitors the prices of 22 essential commodities, which include cereals, pulses, vegetables, edible oils, sugar, milk etc. collected from 64 reporting centres across the country through the Civil Supplies Departments of States/UTs.
The DCA attaches the highest priority to prompt and effective redress of consumer grievances. The Cooperation Division of the DCA oversees the ‘Consumer Grievances Redress Cell’ (CGRC). The CGRC seeks to initiate proactive action to redress consumer grievances. In doing so, the DCA partners with Consumer Online Research (CORE), a voluntary consumer organisation with expertise in this field. Complaints so received through on-line and hard copies are addressed promptly.
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Kesav Desiraju IAS
Senior Bureaucracy in Government of india
Kesav Desiraju IAS is Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Government of india
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