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Consumer Awareness Among College Students: An Overview: Author
Consumer Awareness Among College Students: An Overview: Author
AN OVERVIEW
Author
Dr.G.NEDUMARAN
Associate professor, Department of Commerce, Alagappa University, Karaikudi.
Mobile: 9789153850
Mail ID:[email protected]
Co-Author
Mrs.D.MEHALA
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Alagappa University, Karaikudi.
Mail ID: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Consumers are the largest economic group in any country. They are the central point of
all economic activities. The ultimate aim of production, storage and distribution is to ensure
consumption of goods and services to the satisfaction of the consumers. Consumer awareness
means being conscious of having knowledge about the various consumer production laws, redress
mechanism and the consumer rights which include right to protection of health and safety from
goods and services that the consumer buy, right to be informed about the quality, price, potency,
purity and standard of good, right to choose the best from a variety of others, right to get
representation if there is any grievance or suggestion, and right to seek redress against unfair trade
practice or unscrupulous exploitation. The Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1986 to protect
the consumers from unfair trade practices. There are certain rights provided to every consumer by
the Consumer Protection Act. Every consumer must be aware of the consumer rights and
responsibilities. In the present study, an attempt was made to find the awareness levels among the
rural consumer. To collect the data, 150 sample respondents were selected from Alagappa
University in Karaikudi district of Tamilnadu state.
I.INTRODUCTION
CONSUMER RIGHTS
The best place to start off is to discuss the first four basic rights that JFK helped to bring about for
consumers. Before consumers had these rights, businesses had little to no responsibility when it
came to hearing and compensating for customers’ complaints about their products.
1) The Right to Safety: This right refers to any product, other than an automobile, that may cause
bodily harm to the consumer when used as it was intended to be used. This right gained further
attention in 1972, when the US government formed the Consumer Product Safety Commission,
which set up safety and performance standards for products, requiring them to be tested and carry
warning labels if necessary. Conversely, the consumer’s responsibility here is to use the product
safely, follow all directions, and to be aware of any future warnings regarding the product.
4) The Right to be heard: Consumers have the right to express their complaints and concerns,
resulting not only in safer goods and services, but also for the creation of laws regarding this safety.
There’s no official forum for these complaints to be heard, but state and federal attorney generals,
as well as organizations like the Better Business Bureau deal with these situations all of the time.
It’s a consumer’s responsibility to express their concern when necessary.
5) The Right to Satisfy Basic Needs: People have a right to have access to basic fundamental
needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, sanitation, water, etc. Not only should
consumers have access to these necessities, they should be responsible enough to consume these
items sustainably, so that not only are they fulfilled, but so others can have their needs met, as well.
6) The Right to Redress: If a consumer has lost money or otherwise felt cheated due to
misrepresentation, shoddy products, or unsatisfactory services, they have the right to request money
or other benefits to make up for their loss. The responsibility that lies with them is to seek
appropriate compensation if a wrong is committed, in order to any wrongdoings are unacceptable.
7) The Right to Consumer Education: Consumers have the right to make the best-informed
decision when making a purchase and this information should be readily available, and easy to
understand. It is their duty to remain properly informed as the nature of products evolves over time
and information changes.
8) The Right to a Healthy Environment: Expanding out from consumers rights, and into basic
human rights, people have the right to live and work in an environment that is healthy non-
threatening. This is not only for the people now, but also for future generations, and their
responsibility is to make choices that minimize their environmental impact on the people of today
and tomorrow.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Dr.S.Mohan and V.Suganthi (2015), have studied in their research work entitled the Rural
Consumers Awareness about Consumers Rights. The study conducted to know the awareness level
of rural consumers about the consumer’s rights. The study revealed that there is significant
association between age, educational qualification, marital status and monthly income of rural
consumers and their awareness about consumer rights. And there in significant association between
gender, type of family, occupation and monthly income of rural consumers and their level of
consumer rights awareness.
Jamuna (2016), searched under the title, Consumer awareness and attitudes towards Consumer
Protection Act1986. The study was conducted to find the consumer awareness level. In the study,
responses were taken from the respondents related with consumer responsibilities. Majority
respondents had given first rank to get guarantee and warranty card. It was also found that 67.14%
respondents have awareness about the consumer forums and53.21% respondents felt that
formalities are simple. Majority respondents disagreed with the argument that Consumer awareness
increased with Consumer Protection Act. 25% respondents felt that trade has increased due to
Consumer Protection Act. Only 20% respondents had given the opinion that Consumer Protection
Act created quality consciousness among the consumers.
Deepika, D.Ratan Kumari (2014), A Study on Awareness on Legal act of Consumer Protection
among Students. The study was conducted to find the awareness level among the students towards
various consumer protection legislations. Majority respondents are aware of the Indian Penal Code,
1860. Majority respondents are aware of various acts. Low level of awareness was reported towards
the Hire Purchase Act and the Railway Claims and Tribunal Act. In the study, it was found that
majority students getting awareness through newspapers, journals and from course syllabi. The
awareness towards Consumer Protection Act is 53.3%
Consumer awareness means being conscious of and having knowledge about the various
consumer protection laws, redress mechanism and the consumer which include rights to protection
of health and safety from goods and services that the consumers buy; right to be informed about
quality, quantity, price, potency, purity, and standard of goods; right to choose the best from a
variety of offers, right to consumer education; right to get representation if there is any grievance or
suggestion, and right to seek redress against unfair trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of
consumers. This study of consumer awareness is the study of how individuals make decision on
spending their available resource of money, time and effort on consumption-related items.
To offer valuable suggestions to improve the awareness level based on the findings of the
study.
The Data collection was confined from Alagappa University in Karaikudi district of
Tamilnadu state. In the study, consumer’s awareness level towards consumer rights, and consumer
protections laws was studied. The data was collected in the month of January 2019.
HYPOTHESIS
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Primary Data: Data collected from the target respondents through Structured
Questionnaire.
Secondary Data: Data collected from different source such as Journals, Books,
Magazines, Publications, Report and Internet.
Sample size: 150
Sampling Method: Convenience sampling
EXISTING CONSUMER RIGHTS AND PROTECTION FRAMEWORK IN INDIA.
Besides the Consumer Protection Act 1986, various laws and Regulations in India
protect the interests of consumers, some of which are:
The Act envisages regulation of manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import
of food to confirm handiness of safe and wholesome food for human consumption and
for customers connected with that. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has
been established beneath this Act for birthing down scientific standards for articles of foods and to
control their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to confirm handiness of safe and
wholesome food for human consumption.
The Act governs Indian competition law. It replaced the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade
Practices Act, 1969. below this legislation, the Competition Commission of Republic of India
country nation was established to forestall the activities that have associate
degree adverse impact on competition in India. it's a tool to implement and enforce competition
policy and to forestall and penalize anti-competitive business practices
by corporations and unessential Government interference within the market. Competition law is
equally applicable on written similarly as oral agreement, arrangements between the enterprises or
persons.
TABLE: II
GENDER OF THE RESPONDENTS
The above table indicates that out of 150 respondents 50.7% of the respondents fall
under the category of male, 49.3% under the category of Female. Thus a majority of the
respondents fall in the male.
CHART: I
GENDER WISE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESPONDENTS
Hear by majority of the respondents i.e., 50.7% are belongs to the gender of 76
followed by 49.3% of the respondents are belongs to the age of least.
TABLE: III
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION OF THE RESPONDENTS
The above table indicates that out of 150 respondents 39.3% of the fall
respondents under the category of research scholars level, 12% under the category of UG
Level. Thus a majority of the respondents fall Research scholars in level.
TABLE: IV
MEASURING CONSUMER RIGHTS AWARENESS
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
1) Niraj Kumar, Consumer Protection Law and Practice (2012), Himalaya Publishing House,
Mumbai.
2) P.K.Majumder, Law of Consumer Protection in India, Orient Publishing Company, New
Delhi, 1995.
3) Gupta, S.P., and Gupta M.P., “Business Statistics”, Sultan Chand, vol14, 2006.
4) https://rccp.gov.in/consumerprotection-india.php
5) http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol19-issue7.