Consumer Dignity
The English word ‘dignity’ comes from the Latin word ‘dignitas’ by way of French word ‘dignite’ which means worthiness.
Worthiness is the state or quality of being qualified or eligible.
Indian consumers are fully qualified & eligible (endowed & empowered) to fend not only for themselves but also for the greater good of the entire consumer community.
The biggest drain on the Indian economy is substandard products and services.
The consumer in India is one of the most short changed consumer in the world. Sub standard reject products of the entire world which cannot be sold in their own markets or exported to any other country are dumped into India.
Our consumer protection is so weak that we cannot even control the standards of our own products & services.
Milk & food products sold in India are allowed by FSSAI to have to have trace amounts of Melamine, an adulterant that falsely shows increased protein value of food & milk products but destroys kidneys & creates malnutrition in children.
FSSAI by allowing trace amounts of Melamine in Milk & food products effectively decriminalizes the presence of Melamine even if found in larger quantities. Melamine is rampantly used in India specially in rural India where there is almost total ignorance of such an adulterant.
Official estimates are that up to 25% of all medicines sold in India are spurious. Unofficial estimates peg it much higher with almost doubling in rural areas. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the fake drug market all over the world is estimated at US$ 200 billion with 75% supplied by India, 7% by Egypt & 6% by China. Fake drugs and vaccines are responsible for more than a million deaths across the globe every year.
One of the largest car company in the world involved in the global diesel gate scandal is selling cars in India by programming their ECU (Electronic Control Unit) to show false errors with the car to show increased billing of spares & labour charges. What should take one or two days to fix takes a month or longer with the intent to extort as much as possible from the Indian consumer.
One of India’s largest private sector bank is automatically levying penalties on all its customers with sweep in/sweep out accounts when the bank itself is sweeping out the account to fall below the minimum balance required. Thereafter the bank penalizes the customer for not maintaining minimum balance without reversing the same unless asked for by the client. Often reversal of penalties is refused by the bank on the grounds that it’s the clients responsibility to be vigilant on their own money through net banking for time bound reversals. Often statements are made “Ek haath se do aur ek haath se lo”.
A leading international shoe company with a cute animal logo is selling shoes in India with soles that crumble & disintegrate within a short period of time. When questioned, they informed that the shoes are made of polyurethane (PU) material and one has to wear them every day for the shoes not to crumble. For a new pair of shoes, there is neither a warranty card nor instructions that these shoes contain polyurethane (PU) soles & are likely to crumble if not worn every day.
Nectar a symbol of well being - the honey that millions buy believing it is pure, natural & healthy is contaminated with high levels of antibiotics that is fed to bees & is bad for our health – a leading environmental organization in India has found. Tests have also shown that every branded packaged honey in the Indian market is adulterated with 20 - 70% sugar.
Telemarketing companies claim a large rubber waist belt will enable sweating with weight loss without any exercise.
Asbestos in India’s leading international brand of baby talcum powder.
Lead in India’s leading international brand of instant noodles.
Pesticides in India’s leading international brand of cola and aerated drinks.
The list goes on and on…everywhere services & products are out to exploit the Indian consumer.
Who is responsible for all this? Is there any answerability? What recourse does a consumer have? Approaching the consumer court could take more than two years not to mention the legal fees which sometimes does not justify the cost of the item in question? Most often the effort, delay & costs deters most consumers in taking any action unless the amounts are large enough to fight for. There is no fear of the consequences as most product & service providers know that less than one percent will actually go to court culminating with a small rap on their knuckles & a tiny penalty, if any. Overall the system allows them to do as they please as the profits are huge & the repercussions miniscule.
The present Consumer Protection Act needs to be replaced with Consumer Dignity Act, where every product needs to be made in India with a minimum warranty of 2 years from date of purchase. In case of verified complaint within 2 years, the consumer can opt for a full refund or free replacement. All components that go in to the manufacture of the product must also be made in India with minimum 2 year warranty with Indian Manufacturer Code (IMC), date of manufacture & warranty period printed on each component. Services need to be covered under a new Common Intent Law, where the intent of the service provider is assessed based on whether for greater public good or profit with disregard to public interest. Service providers will have an Indian Service Providers Code (ISPC).
Both products & services can be covered under a new Common Intent Law whereby an Intent Motive Score (IMS) is assigned to all Services & Manufacturing Brands to enable consumers to assess at a glance their consumer friendliness before purchasing their products or utilizing their services. This will ensure a superior quality of products & services from within India, making us a dependable manufacturer worldwide.
The government needs to set up a Consumer Complaint portal using blockchain technology to assign Intent Motive Score (IMS) to all manufacturers & service providers in India by tracking all consumer complaints registered on the portal. Companies have to post on this open forum how many consumer complaints have been redressed.
The consumer can take the companies to court for damages depending on the loss to the Indian economy by their substandard products & services. Out of these damages, 90% goes back to the government to plough back for the greater development of the nation & 10% can be retained by the consumer. Damages calculated in proportion to the loss to the national economy may not be reduced by any court. To protect the economically backward class of consumer, fees based on percentage of damages received should be legally allowed for lawyers in India.
In the products sector up to 50% foreign joint venture may be allowed. In the services sector, 100% Indian ownership should be the case. Once money takes flight with overseas back repatriation by foreign company, it would be almost impossible for them to pay for huge damages allotted by the Indian courts. With Indian ownership, recovery of damages is possible as the assets & profits remain within the country.
Sub standard products & services contributes to a loss of a third to half of the Indian economy.
This huge drain on the Indian economy needs to be addressed.
If India is to become the largest economy in the world by 2050, this is the primary core issue we have to tackle.
If we have 1.3 billion empowered consumers, we will become an unstoppable force driving India on to prosperity much earlier than the year 2050.