Fight for what is Yours!

Who are you? Have you ever been asked this question? At least by yourself in the mirror? All of us know who we are, friend to someone, child to someone, parent to someone and so on. Let us look at a slightly bigger picture, the society or neighborhood. Who are we then? An important person, or a well known person, or the next door guy who greets people with a smile. Everyone is someone, and in the biggest picture, everyone is a consumer. How is that?

Do you consume? Anything? Any product? Then you are a consumer. You are a consumer to the economy, to the government, to the billion valued multinationals and to the low income earning vegetable vendor. So as consumers, what is our primary duty? To consume, of course… and what is our secondary duty? It is upholding the consumer rights. Now this is something not many are aware of, or I should say, are ignorant of.

The Indian attitude towards consumer issues is simple; it can be defined in one word. “Adjusting”. You don’t get the paper on time, you adjust, you do not get your milk packet on time, you wait for it. This is advisable if the case is of one day, but is that so? People adjust themselves to adjusting to things, and people include you, me and everyone else. The adjusting doesn’t stop with the milk and newspaper, it can very well go on throughout the day and into the night. The local watchman who goes around collecting money for staying up all night buys a nice stock of liquor for himself and passes out. We are his consumers, and yet we adjust. What are we going to get by adjusting? The answer is NOTHING. Nothing of value can be obtained, rather the things we procure by adjusting lose their value when you pay something more than your money for it.

Why should we argue with the shopkeeper? Why should we argue with the mail man? Neighbors look at you in a weird manner if you stand up for your right, and to avoid standing out in the crowd we ignore the issues for which we should have given importance and nipped in the bud. This simple thing of ignoring to avoid confrontation has snowballed into the lazy consumer attitude today. A shop nearby sells goods at exorbitant rates and another shop a bit far away sells it at the right prices. But the shop nearby gets maximum sales because people tend to ignore questioning the shopkeeper for selling at higher rates.

When the people affected the most (i.e.: consumers) themselves aren’t too bothered about standing up for their rights why should the government bother? The government gets its share from sources that keep it oiled and greased and silent. Then why would it care if you get what you want or not?

When the government and the people both prefer being silent then why should the vendors and manufacturers bother about us? The attitude they have is quality or not, these people will buy. Right from the days of British Colonialism this has been the attitude.” My product did not get sold anywhere in the world, I am going to India”, and we happily take all the crap that is thrown at us and keep mum. Nobody is going to bother about us. It is we who are getting robbed and plundered, it is we who have to stand up against it and fight for what is ours.

An Additional Consumer Panel Bench for Tamil Nadu

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has decided to have a circuit bench in Madurai and an additional bench in Chennai. This is done to dispose the cases within 90 days as given in the Consumer Protection Act (1987). This is really good for the people of Tamil Nadu. The government is taking consumer issues seriously and is expanding the bench so as to solve the cases quickly.

According to the sources, the state government has issued an order to approve the appointing of two judicial members to the SCRDC. The process of appointment has commenced already. The additional bench in Chennai and the circuit bench in Madurai will be up and running in a month’s time. The sources said that the government is yet to approve appropriate infrastructure for the circuit bench that is being constructed in Madurai. They are yet to decide whether they want to use one or two floors for the hearings.

The circuit bench in Madurai is a permanent feature but the manner of its functionality is yet to be decided. They are deciding on whether they should make it a branch of SCDRC and receive application for day-to-day hearings or have scheduled sittings. The two new judicial members can be in charge of the additional bench in Chennai and also the circuit bench in Madurai. More than 2800 cases are pending and nearly 1200 are from the southern districts.
Consumers are eager for the additional benches as it will lead to speedy disposal of cases and the consumers can save a lot of time and money. There is a common thinking among the consumers that getting justice from consumer court is a long and a tough process. They feel that they will spend a lot of money and energy for no reason. No justice can ever be gained by this. But the steps taken by the state government will be widely appreciated. Consumers know that they are not neglected by the government anymore.

I personally feel that it is good that the government is taking various steps. But appealing to the court alone does not guarantee any justice. People need to fight for it and they rarely win the cases because the company wins as they have the money power to hire good lawyers. The only way for the consumers to be protected is by being informed. Consumers should know where they will get a fair deal and where they will provide good quality products. Prevention is better than cure. So consumers should not be given an option to be cheated. So I request the consumers to be informed. There are a lot of consumer protection websites which provides online information about the various products that are available in the market.