The National Consumer Day is annually observed across India on 24th December to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the needs to ensure that customers are aware of their rights and responsibilities.
The National Consumer Day marks the day on which the Consumer Protection Act 1986 received the presidential assent.
The theme of National Consumer Day 2020 is “New Features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019”.
Objective:
i.To create awareness about the consumer rights among consumers and to ensure that the consumers receive the redressal in case of any violations of their rights.
ii.To promote and protect the basic rights and responsibility of all consumers.
Events 2020:
i.The Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India in collaboration with the Centre for Consumer Studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration(IIPA), virtually celebrates the National Consumer Day 2020 on 24th December 2020.
ii.Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Raosaheb Patil Danve, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution have participated in the virtual event.
Consumer Protection Act, 1986:
The enactment of Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was a major achievement in the consumer movement of India.
Aim:
To protect the consumer against various exploitations like defective goods, deficiency in services and other unfair trade practices.
Objective of the Act:
i.To protect consumer rights like rights to,
- Be protected against the marketing of goods and services that harms life and property.
- Be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services, to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices.
- Be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices.
- Be heard and to be assured that consumer’s interest will receive due consideration at appropriate forums.
- Seek redressal against unfair trade practices or restrictive trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers.
- To consumer education.
ii.To provide redress to consumers
The Consumer Protection Act 2019:
i.The Consumer Protection Act 2019, came into force on 20th July 2020, which will empower consumers and support them to protect their rights through rules and provisions like Consumer Protection Councils, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability and penalize the manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant or spurious goods.
ii.The act also included the establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.
Jago Grahak Jago:
i.The ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ – ‘Be aware consumer’ campaign is a consumer awareness programme launched by the Department of Consumer Affairs in 2005.
ii.As a part of this initiative, the government has used channels to create awareness among the general public through various mass communication media like prints, advertisements, audio campaigns etc.
About Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA):
Chief Commissioner– Nidhi Khare
Headquarters– Delhi
