Rights Corner
Consumer Rights Protection Act and the helpless buyers
Ratna Yasmin
APU, a 4th grade student of Mohammadpur Prepa-ratory School, is being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for over two weeks. He finds it hard to pass time there. He misses his classmates a lot although two of his closest friends have already visited him at the hospital.
Apu may not be a brilliant student, but he has always excelled in sport. He also paints very well and goes to an art school near his house. His mother Farzana Rahman says, “Everyday after school Apu pesters me to buy him something to eat. Jhalmuri, juice and ice creams are his favourite. Barely two weeks ago he started pestering me to buy him juice. What else could I do! I bought him juice from a shop next to his school. After having half the juice he said, 'Mom, I have stomach cramps. I feel like throwing up.' Although I didn't instantly understand what was going on, I rushed him home and called his dad. Later in the day we admitted him to the DMCH. He vomited as soon as he got there.”
The doctor says, “The juice that Apu drank was probably very old and it had artificial colours in it. Thousands of children like Apu, even a lot of adults, are falling ill after having them.” When Apu's father asked the shopkeeper why he sold date-expired juice, he flatly denied it. The product did have the expiry date written on it, didn't it? Many educated people like Apu's mother neglect to check this information. So they fall victim to such health problems.
Shops sell different brands of fruit juices. Some of them are claimed to be orange juice, some mango juice and other kinds of fruit juices. The buyers and consumers of these products are children, young people, the elderly ones, and almost all kinds of people. School-going children can hardly complete their tiffin without fruit juice. Stories of people falling sick right after consuming these products come out regularly in the newspapers.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the country's only watchdog body that promotes and protects consumer rights, and BSTI identified only two fruit juice brands out of 11 that did not have any natural fruit juice content at all. But recently, tests carried out at the public health laboratory by ICDDR,B and Dhaka City Corporation revealed that 97 per cent of the juice brands did not have any natural fruit juices at all. This test also disclosed that instead of fruit juices a kind of poisonous colour is mixed in it. Specialist doctors say that if these adulterated drinks are consumed a person can get afflicted with cancer, kidney and liver failures, stomach troubles and any kind of complicated disease.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in its 39th session approved a Consumer Rights Protection policy on April 9 1985. Since then, the United Nations has been asking its member countries to ratify a consumer rights protection law. Even before that a proposal for protecting the consumer rights was passed in the 29th meeting of the Human Rights Commission in 1973 in Geneva.
Bangladesh is a developing country of Asia. The social position of a consumer is very weak in this country, and that is why citizen rights are frequently violated here. Although the ordinary consumers are betrayed and harassed, no legal action is taken against the dishonest businesspeople. In Bangladesh consumers have little access to information. Both the government and non-government organisations are reluctant about it although the consumers have the right to know the correct information. There are some laws like The Essential Product Control Act 1956, The Essential Product Pricing and Distribution Act 1970, The Weights and Quantity Act 1982, Trademark Law 140 and The Pure Water Act 2005, aiming to protect the consumer rights but those are now obsolete and hardly enforced.
CAB has been campaigning for more than 15 years for consumer rights related issues giving special importance to safe food. According to sources, this was the first organisation that raised the demand for modifying the Safe food Act in 1959. Another CAB report says every year almost 18 lakh people get afflicted with various diseases after taking contaminated foods. The components that are used in these foods include DDT powder, urea fertiliser, chemical colourings and many other harmful ingredients.
A recent survey conducted by CAB shows 88 per cent of the consumers here have no idea about their rights. It reveals that 53 pert cent of the residents of Dhaka and only 12 per cent of the consumers in district towns are aware of their rights and responsibilities. Only 55 per cent of the consumers in the capital city and 37 per cent in district towns are aware of the fact that there are some laws to protect interests of the consumers. But very few of them can actually name the laws, while 33 per cent of the consumers in capital Dhaka and 25 per cent in the district towns know that some organisations are working to protect the interests of the consumers. Most of the consumers living in cities mentioned the name of CAB while most in the district towns about BSTI.
Manjur Ahmed, advisor and coordinator (Tax and VAT) of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), says, “Virtually consumers in our country are cheated in every way -- actually they have no rights. So it's our moral responsibility to enforce the laws. It's the government's duty to do that. There is a budgetary provision for the enforcing the laws. The issue that should receive special consideration is the mechanism to control the market. There is no price control in our country. But in the European countries there exists price control mechanism. I think there should be a 'consumer protection cell.” According to reliable sources, the draft for the consumer protection law awaits the Law Ministry's vetting. If the law is passed, the lawful rights of the consumers will be established and they will be able to file a case against a seller if their rights are violated.
If the law could be implemented properly, it will ensure reasonable prices of the products and help stabilise prices and prevent adulteration and hoarding. In the draft law the jail term is proposed from one to 10 years while the fine from Tk 5,000 to 3 lakh. But no one can say for sure when this proposed law would be passed, but countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have got such laws much ago.
Executive Editor of The Daily Janakantha Borhan Ahmed, who was also the chairperson of CAB, says, “If we look at other countries, they have some special laws to protect the interests and rights of the consumers. But there is no such law in our country. In the Philippines and Malaysia, they have very stringent laws to protect the consumer rights. We should also take immediate steps to make such laws in our country effective.”
Lawyers agree that no matter what law is enacted, its implementation is always important. There are many good laws in our country but since they are not enforced properly, they lose their effectiveness.
According to CAB employees, to prevent the businesspeople from resorting to malpractices, it is also absolutely necessary to implement other rules and regulations apart from enforcing the 1959 Pure Water Act. Long-term planning and adulteration prevention drives should be taken and carried out regularly. Public awareness is also important in this regard.
Source: NewsNetwork.
