Buyers beware!
CONSUMER'S rights have long held centre stage in right-focused activities in the world. Institutional concerns about good governance cannot sidetrack overriding issue like protection of consumer's rights. Vibrant civil societies are instrumental in spearheading social movement with emphasis on consumer's rights.
As activists of a citizen oriented form of association, they have spread worldwide over culturally varied communities to promote mass awareness about harmful processes that continue to undermine human rights.
Orchestrated movements have recently cropped up as the voice of the consumers, with numerous think-tanks holding mass rallies and arranging seminars and symposia. They project the predicaments of the consumers growing out of distortion and malfunctioning of markets. The Consumer Association of Bangladesh (Cab) has organised such a movement through policy advocacy.
There were four globally recognised rights of consumers: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. Later on, four more rights were included in UN guidelines for consumer's protection: the right to protection against exploitation by unfair trade practices, the right to protection of health and safety from the goods and services the consumers buy or are offered free, the right to get the grievances redressed and the right to physical environment. Articles 15, 18 and 32 of the Bangladesh constitution provided for protection of consumers. Besides there are legal measures and additional legislations to protect consumer's rights.
In Bangladesh, consumers have long been living in a state of uncertainty. Criminalisation in commercial activities batters the consumers, who are hypothetically the beneficiaries of public policies. Many a fraudulent practice unnoticed by the public authorities militate against their safety and security.
The gullible consumers have become onlookers in the notorious manipulation of markets by unscrupulous traders. The blissful slumber of the concerned authority strengthens the traders -- to the disenchantment of the ordinary masses.
Cab took an initiative to prepare a draft of a consumer protection law. The immediate past CTG approved in principle the consumer protection ordinance, 2007. The present government has gone further. The 1st session of the ninth parliament passed the Consumer Protection Law on April 1, 2009.
It is first the time in Bangladesh that consumer rights protection has found a proper institutional position with the blessings of the law. There are punitive measures to prevent adulteration, fraudulent practices, production and sale of spurious and harmful commodities, sale of date-expired medicine and food items, any misleading advertisement to hoodwink the buyers, rigging in weight, and using fictitious weight to deceive the buyers.
The new legislation makes it mandatory to clearly indicate the net-weight and the date of production and expiry on the packet. A price list must be displayed in every grocery and shop .
However, we must think of public service as well as institutional capacity. What is important is how the laws are implemented. For follow-up action, a consumer rights protection council or directorate can be formed with the DC or thana OC to investigate violation of the law. Another highlight is the formation of a national council for the protection of consumer right headed by commerce minister (ex-officio). It consists of 29 members.
What we need for ensuring implementation is horizontal and vertical expansion of Cab. There must be offices of Cab at every important city points and rural-local points, with a citizen's complaint box. It must be ensured that a consumer gets legal support from these offices. Cab should be strengthened by involvement of stakeholders in various communities. There should be consumers' co-operative shops in every housing society with the support of Cab.
Institutional laws guiding executive actions needs to be upgraded to fulfill the expectations of the consumers. In every consumer council or directorate in the districts, there should be modern infrastructure and training facilities for capacity building.
It should have a surveillance team to facilitate regular monitoring. Mobile courts should be empowered to punish the unscrupulous traders who violate the law, and see that uniformity is maintained in the retail shops so far as prices of the essentials are concerned.
The institutions as mentioned in the law must think it incumbent upon them to promote consumer movement and consumerism by imparting consumer education to the citizens. They should monitor all modern services in public and private sectors based on electronic governance, including transport and communication, telecommunication, and house building and financial institutions providing credit card and ATM facilities.
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