Every year, 24th December is observed as National Consumer Day. The aim is to raise awareness among consumers about their rights and responsibilities. On this day in the year 1986, the consumer protection act 1986 came into force after receiving the president assent. As consumers hold the most power in buying and selling of goods, whereas the west established consumer rights, India is striving to highlight its national consumer movement and stand in solidarity in it. With e-commerce gaining more and more popularity, consumers need to be aware of and exercise their rights, as well as their responsibilities.
History- In India, the right of consumers were taken seriously after the consumer protection act, 1986 was enacted. This bill aims to safeguard the consumer against exploitation like selling defective goods, unfair trade, and deficiency in service. Over the years, India’s economy has gone under transformation, significantly altering how many Indian shops. This was a result of a rising market, competition, innovation, and increasing pressure of e-commerce services, which expand the option for consumers. Taking this dynamic and advanced market, the Indian parliament passes the updated Consumer Protection Bill on August 6, 2019. This bill is also known as CPA 2019 and received approval from the president on August 9, 2019. Therefore, after approval, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution declared July 20, 2020, for the CPA 2019 to come into effect. The Consumer Protection Acts of both 1986 and 2019 are complemented by the Right to Information Act, which made the governance processes of India transparent to the citizens and included vast implications for consumer rights. These include the right to safety, the right to information, the right to choose, and the right to consumer education.
The Idea of Consumer Right day is also observed at a global level. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy, general guidelines were set by the UN For consumers protection. In 1983, March 15 was marked annually as world Consumer Right day.
Why this day is celebrated- It becomes important to celebrate National Consumer Day because the relationship between buyer and seller involves money, and money is the most useful thing as well as the biggest threat to humanity. As Government has fixed prices and rates for almost every (goods) and every service, but most of the sellers play their tricky part and quote prices apart from government prices which leads to the threat of Consumer rights. There has to be equality in prices and the prices that consumer is consuming something and for equality, there has to be proper awareness which makes the existence ofNational Consumers Day important. Significance- This day provides an opportunity for individuals to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. This aims to provide few rights to the consumers to save them from the damages caused to them due to different unfair trade practices. It ensures speedy and inexpensive settlements of consumer disputes. As eight rights recognized under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 includes six rights of the consumers provided in the UN charter.
Theme-This year’s theme of National Consumer Day is “Tackling Plastic Pollution".