CHAPTER The collage you see below contains some news clippings of Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission verdicts. Why did the people go to these organisations in these cases? These verdicts came about because some people persisted and struggled to get justice. In what ways were they denied justice?
More importantly, what are the ways in which they can exercise their rights as consumers to get a fair deal from the sellers when they felt they had been denied a just treatment? We participate in the market both as producers and consumers. As producers of goods and services we could be working in any of the sectors discussed earlier such as agriculture, industry, or services. Consumers participate in the market when they purchase goods and services that they need.
These are the final goods that people as consumers use. In the preceding chapters we discussed the need for rules and regulations or steps that would promote development. These could be for the protection of workers in the unorganised sector or to protect people from high interest rates charged by moneylenders in the informal sector. Similarly, rules and regulations are also required for protecting the environment.
For example, moneylenders in the informal sector that you read about in Chapter adopt various tricks to bind the borrower: they could make the producer sell the produce to them at a low rate in return for a timely loan; they could force a small farmer like Swapna to sell her land to pay back the loan. Similarly, many people who work in the unorganised sector have to work at a low wage and accept conditions that are not fair and are also often harmful to their health. To prevent such exploitation, we have talked of rules and regulations for their protection. There are organisations that have struggled for long to ensure that these rules are followed.