Tag: civics

The consumer movement is an effort to promote consumer protection through organized social movements which in many places led by consumer organizations. It represents the rights of consumers, especially whose rights are infringed by the actions of corporations, governments, and other organizations which provide products & services to consumers.

Right to Information is an Act of the Parliament of India and replaces the Freedom of information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a body of the government which would then be required to reply within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records to certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

The cases dealt in state level courts have the claims between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 1 crores.

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are the two consumer laws of United States.

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: this is abbreviated as FFDCA. This law includes set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: this was approved in the year 1977. It establishes legal protection from abusive debt collection practices.

COPRA is nothing but the Consumer Protect Act. It was introduced in the year 1986 by government of India to safeguard the rights of consumers from the greedy business people aiming only for the profits.

The greedy practices followed by sellers to make extra profits as a result of lack of consumer awareness include black marketing, misleading advertisements to improve the sale of quality less goods, overcharging than the original.

Among the given options, state level consumer law of United States is California Department of Consumer Affairs. This department ensures professionalism in key industries and promotes consumer awareness. 

2005 was a momentous year for right to information in India because it saw the enactment of a national right to information law. The Central Act was passed by the Indian Parliament on 12 May 2005 and received Presidential assent on 15 June 2005. It came into force on 12 October 2005.

Steps have been taken by government for consumer protection and awareness. Government adopted six points under joint action plan, which include:

• Action against fake, substandard products
  
• Developing a self-regulation code
  
• Launching of joint awareness campaigns
  
• Ear marking of CSR funds for consumer welfare activities
  
• Jointly developing and implementing industry standards for grievance and redressal
  
• All industry to partner with national and state helplines.
  

The measures take up by government to protect consumers from exploitation includes providing trademarks like ISI, AGMARK for agricultural goods, and Hall mark for gold. It also provides consumer education and awareness through various means like customer care services and making it necessary to mentioning as much as possible information about the product on the wrapper or outer cover.