The Consumers Movement in India:

(i)The consumer movement as a ‘social force’ originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices.

(ii)Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organised form in the 1960s.

(iii)Till the 1970s, consumer organisations were largely engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions. They formed consumer groups to look into the malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in the road passenger transport. More recently, India witnessed an upsurge in the number of consumer groups. 

(iv)Because of all these efforts, the movement succeeded in bringing pressure on business firms as well as government to correct business conduct which may be unfair and against the interests of consumers at large.

(v)A major step taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, popularly known as COPRA.

The need for consumer awareness was felt because out of their selfishness both the manufacturers and traders go to any extent. They can hold essential goods to create artificial demand.

(i)For example, a company for years sold powder milk for babies all over the world as the most scientific product claiming this to be better than mother’s milk. It took years of struggle before the company was forced to accept that it had been making false claims.

(ii)Similarly, a long battle had to be fought with court cases to make cigarette manufacturing companies accept that their product could cause cancer.

Factors which causes exploitation of consumers are mentioned below:

(i)Dishonesty and Malpractices: Over charges, hoarding, adulteration, black marketing, tampering weight and measures etc.

(ii)Negligence and false information: Negligence of doctors/surgeons and other staff members in the hospitals, negligence of principal/teachers in the school and negligence of government official in all public dealing offices cause exploitation of consumers.

(iii)Limited and false information about the goods or products is given to the consumers. As a result, consumers make a wrong choice and suffer loses.

(iv) Low literacy leads to consumer exploitation as they do not have complete knowledge about the products.

(v) If there is one or a few producers of a product, there is a possibility of manipulation in prices and supply. 

The following are the rationale behind the enactment of Consumer Protection Act, 1986:

(i)There was no legal system available to consumers to protect them from exploitation in the marketplace. For a long time, when a consumer was not happy with a particular brand product or shop, he or she generally avoided buying that brand product, or would stop purchasing from that shop.

(ii)It was presumed that it was the responsibility of consumers to be careful while buying a commodity or service. In India, the consumer movement as a ‘social force’ originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices.

(iii)Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organised form in the 1960s.

(iv)Till the 1970s, consumer organisations were largely engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions. They formed consumer groups to look into the malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in the road passenger transport. More recently, India witnessed an upsurge in the number of consumer groups.

(v)Because of all these efforts, the movement succeeded in bringing pressure on business firms as well as government to correct business conduct which may be unfair and against the interests of consumers at large. A major step taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 1986, popularly known as COPRA.