THE GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL CONSUMER HELPLINE

WHY NCH WAS SET UP THE GOVERNMENT.

The consumer Protection Act of 1986 provides for three tier quasi- judicial consumer disputes
redressal mechanism at the District, State and National levels. These Consumer Forums at
different levels are less formal and more consumers friendly, and came into existence with the
aim of providing speedy and inexpensive justice. However, over the period the burden of cases
on these forums has been increasing and they are unable to deliver justice to consumers
efficiently. Some of the issues that are affecting the functioning of these forums are pendency
of cases, delay in hearings and lack of infrastructure, staff and quality members.

It was in this context that the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government OF India set up the
National Consumer Helpline in 2005 as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. NCH is
one of its kinds in the country and till now it has provided information and guidance to a large
number of consumers.

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN BY THE GOVERNMENT

 In July 2018 the following question was asked to the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food
and Public Distribution –
Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be
pleased to state:-
(a) the number of persons who did online shopping in the country during the last three
years;
(b) the total amount incurred by people and purchase of goods through e-commerce;
(c) the number of complaints received by National Consumer Helpline during the last
three years;
(d) the number of complaints redressed out of these;
(e) whether there is any scheme under consideration of the Government to create
awareness among consumers; and
(f) if so, the details thereof?
This question was answered on 31.07.2018 by the Minister of State Consumer Affairs,
Food and public Distribution- Shri C.R Chaudhary.
The answer was as follows:
a) & (b): As per the NASSCOM data, the Indian e-commerce market was USD 33 billion
and growing at a rate of 19% in the FY 2017. As per the NASSCOM Information
Technology Strategic Report 2017, the Indian e-commerce industry is expanding in tier II/
tier III regions and with 40 % share, online retails traverse is visible or known in India.
 (c) & (d ): The number of complaints received by National Consumer Helpline (NCH) for
convergence companies related to e-commerce and complaints disposed since August
2016 to March 2018 are as under:-

Year Total dockets registered under e-commerce for convergence companies Redressal
*12 Aug 2016 – 31 Mar 2017 17495 15398 (88%)
1 Apr 2017 – 31 Mar 2018 50820 48043(95%)

*Prior to August 2016, the role of NCH was primarily restricted to tendering advice to the
consumers as to how to get their complaints resolved. Since August 2016, the NCH has
been taking steps to get the grievances of the consumers resolved.

(e) & (f) : There is a National level scheme of media awareness campaign – “Jago Grahak
Jago”. The Jago Grahak Jago campaign endeavours to create consumer rights
awareness, pro-active consumer behaviour and consumer protection.1

In this debate of Lok Sabha the Ministry of Consumer Affairs mentions the awareness
program of the government Jago Grahak Jago. So, in the following section we have analyzed
this campaign

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: JAGO GRAHAK JAGO

The consumer Awareness Scheme amounting to a total of Rs. 409 crore was approved by the
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in 2008. This Scheme was launched to increase the use
of multimedia publicity campaign to empower consumers by educating them of their rights and
responsibilities. Keeping in mind the large illiterate population of India who lives in rural area ,
educating all the citizens about their consumer right becomes a gigantic task. Government has
taken up many activities and schemes to create consumer awareness in all the parts of the
country under the Consumer Awareness Scheme.

The ministry of Consumer Affairs has a consumer protection and awareness program under the
banner of “Jago Grahak Jago”.Through this program the Government aims to inform every
common man of his rights as a consumer. “Jago Grahak Jago” became the focal theme of this
scheme. Under this banner many joint scheme has also been launched by the ministry of
Consumer Affairs and other ministries.

1
loksabha.nic.in
The toll free number- 1800 11 4000 which is the National Consumer Helpline was made
polpular under the scheme of Jago Grahak Jago.

EFFECT OF “JAGO GRAHAK JAGO”

According to research done by Prof. Dhyan Singh on the “Effect of jago grahak jago “, this
campaign was useful to increase the level of the consumer awareness but there was no
satisfactory behavioural changes in the buying habits of the consumers. This study also
supported that there is a great need to do something more to change the behavior of the
consumers. It said that communication campaign has been effective in increasing the
awareness among the people but there is least evidence of the effectiveness of changing the
behavior and attitude of everybody in a vast country like India.2

CONCLUSION

This movement of Consumer Awareness aimed at making people aware about their consumer
rights and also making the National Consumer Helpline popular. In terms of the awareness part
this campaign was definitely a huge hit and people did get to know about their rights as a
consumer and Jago Grahak Jago became a household tagline, but when we talk about the
National Consumer Helpline the effects were not that satisfactory. This conclusion can also be
substantiated by the responses that we received in our primary research- most of the people
were aware about the Jago Grahak Jago Campaign and the Consumer rights, but they were
unaware of the existence of a National Consumer Helpline. The government has been
successful in making people aware of their consumer rights but has failed in making them
aware about the National Consumer Helpline.

2
Dr. Dhyan Singh (2014)- Effect of “Jago Grahak Jago” Communication Campaigns in India to Increase Consumer
Awareness