World Consumer Rights Day 2018: Know your Rights as a Consumer!

World Consumer Rights Day

15th March is observed as World Consumer Rights Day, an annual occasion which serves as a means of raising global awareness among the consumer rights. The day is dedicated to promoting basic consumer rights, respecting them, and then giving the chance to consumers to protest against market abuses and social injustices.

PM Modi on World Consumer Rights Day

Greeting the consumers, PM Narendra Modi took to Twitter and posted a video along with the message saying that “Government of India is not only focusing on consumer protection but also consumer prosperity.” The tweet also contains a video that explains the basic rights of a consumer while he/she makes a purchase.

Another tweet was posted by Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan:

How did it start?

The World Consumer Rights Day is credited to US President John F Kennedy, who was the first leader to formally address the issue of consumer rights in a special message to the U.S. Congress in 1962. Subsequently, the movement was adopted by several countries.

Consumer Rights in India

Consumer Protection Act

In India, the Consumer Protection Act was introduced in 1986, providing a legal face to the consumers. Later, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs came up with a multimedia campaign “Jaago Grahak Jaago” that literally means “wake up consumers”!

In October 2017, PM Modi inaugurated a 2-day conference in New Delhi and revealed that government is working on a new law that would replace the Consumer Protection Act 1986, ensuring that people are not misled by scrupulous advertisements.

In India, the consumers have following basic rights:

• Protection from all kinds of hazardous goods and services
• Full information about the performance and quality of all goods and services
• Free choice of goods and services
• Seeking redressal whenever consumer rights are infringed
• Complete consumer education
• To be heard in all decision-making processes related to consumer interests

World Consumer Rights Day 2018 Theme

For the 2018 edition, Consumers Internationals has decided the theme for Consumer Rights Day as ‘Making digital marketplaces fairer’. Since more and more people have access to the internet now, the scope of e-commerce is on a steady rise. Talking about India, the consumer rights laid down in the Consumer Protection Act are also applicable to e-customers.

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