Answer:

Consumer rights in India are protected by the Consumer Protection Act 1986 which lays down six basic rights for consumer empowerment viz. Right to safety, information, choose, being heard, redressal and education. These rights are imperative for promoting the culture of good governance which focuses on efficiency, effectiveness, ethics, equality, economy, transparency, accountability, empowerment, rationality, impartiality and participation.

In India, the consumer rights are protected through a three tier redressal system at Centre, State and District level to provide simple, speedy and inexpensive redressal to consumer grievances. Despite this, consumer protection in India is facing following issues:

♤ Consumer Protection Act 1986 focuses more on redressal and less on prevention of disputes.

♤ Consumer Protection Councils which are entrusted to protect and promote the consumer rights are toothless and non-existent in many states and districts.

♤ Mechanism for enforcement is available for only 1 out of the 6 rights mentioned in the 1986 Act i.e. right to redressal of grievances.

♤ Inordinate delays in providing justice to the consumers.

♤ Lack of quality infrastructure such as poor laboratory testing facilities, digital infrastructure of the consumer courts etc.

♤ Poor enforcing mechanisms to ensure minimum standard of services and standardization of products.