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.
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Right to 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. In the market place of India, consumers get information by two ways namely advertising and word of mouth however these sources are considered to be unreliable but still this word of mouth is quite common here.Because of this, the Indian consumers hardly have precise and complete information for assessing the true value, safety, suitability, reliability of any product. Usually the hidden costs can be found, lack of suitability, quality problems and safety hazards only after the purchase of the product.
There is another right claimed by Indian government on paper, this right must ideally make sure that all consumable products have been labeled in a standard manner containing the cost, quantity, the ingredients and instructions given to use the product safely. It is unfortunate that even the medicines in the country do not follow a standardized labeling convention. There should be establishment of unit price publishing standards for consumer market where costs are revealed in standard units like per kg or per liter. The consumers, ought to be informed in an exact yet accurate manner for the cost involved during time of availing a loan. For providing benefit to the society through this right, advertisers must be held against the standards of products in the advertisements. The pharmaceuticals require todisclose potential side effects related to their drugs and manufacturers ought to be required to publish reports from independent product testing laboratories for the purpose of comparing the quality of their products from competitive products. There is a website: Consumerdaddy.com, for the purpose of empowering the consumers withright to information. Without help of these types of websites it is difficult to spread awareness among the consumers of India. The right to information gives the power to the consumers to have an easy access to information which is necessary for the consumer.
