Safety
According to the Consumer Protection Act 1986, the consumer right is referred to as ‘right to be protected against marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to life and property’.It is applicable to specific areas like healthcare, pharmaceuticals.
Information
The right to information is defined as ‘the right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services, as the case may be so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices’ in the Consumer Protection Act of 1986.
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social as well as economic order which encourages the buying of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. This term is sometimes associated with critics of consumption beginning with Thorstein Veblen. Veblen's topic of examination.
Links
International Standards for Safeguarding Right to Safe Environment
Group of consumer organizations from around the world representing various nodal agencies has formed Consumers International to provide specific guidelines to ensure that safe environment is provided in the context of the consumers' rights. These are the focal points of through which all consumers are provided protection to ensure environmental pollution is kept away:
- Promote environmentally sustainable products’use
- Encourage recycling options
- Demand for the environmentally dangerous items to carry suitable warnings or instruction on safety disposal upon use
Promote the use of non-toxic products by:
- Take initiatives for consumer awareness to prefer alternate options for toxic items
- Establish thorough strategy that any item banned in foreign countries doesn’t have entry in the national market.
- Develop strategies to minimize the social impacts of pollution
- Endorseproducers or suppliers of goods and services who take care of ethical issues and keep the social and environmental aspect into consideration
As compared to their urban counterparts rural consumers remain closer to the environment. The environment around them directly impact on the livelihoods and lifestyles they enjoy. For example trees they use for firewood and other sources of energy remain impactful. Livestock they receive also get the dungsfrom the fields. Similarly, they either use underground water or else have water supply from the rivers. Annual rainfalls matter the most for the crops they harvest. They even use natural pesticides to safeguardcrops or to store them through the use of neem trees. Unlimited examples of theirs make rural life unique as it always revolvesaround the natural resources. As they are solely dependent on environment to make their life complete they would do whatever they can to preserve that. They depend on environment from building houses to collecting fodder for cattles they keep.
