Consumer Awareness and Consumer Protection: An Empirical Evidence

Consumer protection has become the topic of debate at all levels. The reason behind this has been the lack of awareness of consumers and the malpractices of the business world. In order to maximize profits, many businessmen exploit consumers by supplying poor qual­ity goods at higher prices. They adopt unfair trade practices such as adulteration, boarding, black-marketing, etc. As a result, consumers do not get value for their money. Big business houses use their power for private gain and to the detriment of consumers. Consumers are exposed to physical, environmental and other hazards. They need to be protected from spurious, duplicate and adulterated products, pollution of air, water and noise, and misleading advertising. Consumer protection, however, is only possible if two steps are taken. First is to frame rules, legislations and set up machinery like courts to assure that laws are implemented in their true spirits. Second is to make the stakeholders aware of such laws so that they might defend themselves when required. Keeping these two steps in mind, this study has been undertaken. It covers the evaluation of consumer protection machinery and assesses the level of awareness of consumers in Himachal Pradesh. A brief outline of the thesis is as below. Chapter – I deals with the introduction to consumer protection. It discusses the meaning of consumer, consumer protection, and consumerisms. It also discusses the consumer’s rights, needs, and consumer’s responsibilities. Chapter – II reviews the literature concerning the problem at hand. It also presents a picture of research design formulated for the present research work. It discusses the selection of the problem, importance, scope, objectives, hypotheses and research methodology of the present study. Finally, the limitations and the future scope of study have been shown. Chapter – III discusses consumerism and consumer protection movements at the international and national level. Chapter – IV is an attempt to examine various legislations for consumer protection at the international level as well at the national level in India. Chapter – V reviews the frameworks for consumer dispute resolution and redress in India. Chapter – VI examines the organizational setup for the consumer protection along with its evaluation in Himachal Pradesh. Chapter – VII deals with the analyses of opinion and perception about consumer awareness and consumer alertness with regard to consumer protection. Chapter – VIII highlights the summary and major findings of the study. It also explains suggestions to improve the implementation of consumer protection laws and awareness among people.