NCERT Solutions For Class 10 Economics Chapter 5 Consumer Rights

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NCERT Solutions For Class 10 Economics Chapter 5 Consumer Rights Long Answer Questions

Question 1. What are the different forms of consumer exploitation?

Answer:

The Different Forms Of Consumer Exploitation Are:

  1. Less weight.
  2. Defective goods.
  3. Provide poor services.
  4. Impure quality of products/goods.
  5. High Prices: Sellers usually charge a price higher than the prescribed retail price.
  6. Duplicate Articles.
  7. False or incomplete information, misleading consumers.
  8. Lack of safety devices that cause harm to the consumers.
  9. Adulteration Mixing or substituting undesirable materials in food items, etc.
  10. Unsatisfactory after-sales service: Supplies do not provide satisfactory behavior.
  11. Large companies with huge wealth, power, and reach can manipulate the market.

Read and Learn More Class 10 Social Science Solutions

Question 2. What are the factors responsible for consumer exploitation?
Or
How are consumers exploited?
Or
Describe the factors responsible for consumer exploitation.

Answer:

The Following Factors Are Responsible For Consumer Exploitation:

  1. Limited Information: For a correct decision and choice about a product, a consumer needs full information about the price, quality, durability, composition, etc., of the product. In the absence of full and correct information, a consumer may get exploited.
  2. Limited Supplies: When the supply of goods is less than their demand, the prices may go high and may also encourage the tendency of hoarding. As a consequence, consumers will get exploited.
  3. Limited Competition: When there is limited competition with regard to production, i.e., when producers are few and can control and restrict the supply of a product there is a possibility of manipulation in prices.
  4. Low Literacy: Illiteracy causes ignorance, which leads to the exploitation of consumers. The level of awareness in our country is generally low.

NCERT Solutions For Class 10 Economics Chapter 5 Consumer Rights

Question 3. What are consumer protection councils?

Answer:

These are voluntary organizations locally known as consumer forums or consumer protection councils. The main activities of the consumer forums or consumer protection councils are:

  1. They guide consumers on how to file cases in the consumer court.
  2. They may represent individual consumers in the consumer courts.
  3. They create awareness among the people.
  4. These voluntary organizations receive financial support from the government for the above purposes.

Question 4. Critically examine the growth of consumer movements in India.

Answer:

  1. In India, the consumer movement as a ‘social force’ originated with the necessity of protecting, and promoting the interests of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices.
  2. Whenever a complaint regarding goods or services is made, the seller tries to shift all the responsibility onto the buyer.
  3. Rampant (unchecked) food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, and adulteration of food items gave birth to the consumer movement in an organized form in the 1960s.
  4. Till the 1970s, consumer organizations were largely engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions. They formed consumer groups to look into the malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in the road passenger transport only.
  5. More recently, India has witnessed an upsurge in the number of consumer groups. They make consumers aware of their rights and duties and guide them to redress their grievances.
  6. There are today more than 700 consumer groups in the country of which only about 20-25 are well organized and recognized for their work.
  7. Under the Consumer Protection Act (COPRA), three-tier quasi-judicial machinery at the district, state, and national levels was set up for redressal of consumer disputes.
  8. The district-level court deals with cases involving claims up to ₹20 lakh, the state-level courts between ₹ 20 lakh and 1 crore and the national-level court deals with cases involving claims exceeding ₹1 crore.
  9. If a case is dismissed in district-level court, the consumer can appeal in state and then in national-level courts.

Question 5. Explain with three suitable examples the meaning of the “right to be informed” as provided under the Consumer Protection Act.

Answer:

  1. It is the right of the consumer to get information about ingredients used, price, batch number, date of manufacture, expiry date and the address of the manufacturer, aftersales services, etc., of a product.
  2. When we buy medicines, on the packets, we find ‘directions for proper use’ and information relating to side effects and risks associated with the usage of that medicine. When we buy garments, we find information on ‘instructions for washing’.
  3. It helps consumers to choose the best product after knowing the information given by different products. It helps the consumers to use the product effectively.
  4. It complies with the right of the consumers to be informed and to seek remedy through courts. Rules are made because it is the right of consumers to be informed. Consumers can complain and ask for compensation or replacement if the product proves defective.
  5. Similarly, consumers can protest and complain if someone sells goods at more than the Maximum Retail Price.

Question 6. What are the drawbacks of consumer movement in India?

Or

Describe any five shortcomings of the consumer movement in India.

Answer:

  1. The consumer redressal process is becoming inefficient, expensive, and time-consuming. Many a time, consumers are required to engage lawyers. These cases require time for filing and attending the court proceedings.
  2. In most purchases cash memos are not issued hence, evidence is not easy to gather. Moreover, most purchases in the market are small retail sales.
  3. The existing laws also are not very clear on the issue of compensation to consumers injured by defective products.
  4. After 20 years of the enactment of COPRA, consumer awareness in India is spreading but slowly.
  5. Besides this the enforcement of laws that protect workers, especially in the unorganized sectors is weak. Similarly, rules and regulations for the working of markets are often not followed.
  6. Today there are more than 700 consumer groups in the country of which only about 20-25 are well-organized and recognized for their work.

Question 7. What is the rationale behind the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 1986?

Or

Why was COPRA enacted? Explain.

Answer:

  1. The rationale behind the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act is the protection of consumer rights and the prevention of unfair practices in the markets.
  2. Consumers are exploited in a number of ways in the market. Individual consumers often find it difficult to protect their interests. Therefore, this Act was passed.
  3. Sometimes traders indulge in unfair trade practices such as underweight and under measurement, adulteration, hoarding, etc.
  4. Whenever a complaint regarding goods or services is made, the seller tries to shift all the responsibility onto the buyer.
  5. Certain rules and regulations are required for the markets to work in a fair manner when producers are few and powerful whereas consumers purchase in small amounts and are scattered.

Question 8. State the rights of consumers as codified in Indian laws.

Or

Explain the rights enjoyed by the consumers in India.

Answer:

Right To Safety: Consumers have the right to protect against the marketing of goods and services, that are hazardous to life and property.

Right To Be Informed: It is the right of the consumers to know the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard, and price of the goods. The Right to Information Act supports this right.

Right To Choose: It is the assurance of access to a variety of goods with quality and services at competitive prices. A consumer who receives a service in whatever capacity regardless of age, gender, and nature of service has the right to choose whether to continue to receive the service. Consumers can choose any product of any brand that gives them more satisfaction.

Right To Seek Redressal: The consumer has the right to get the money back or compensation in the event of loss of money, damage, improper functioning, or any other form of exploitation.

Right To Represent In The Consumer Courts: The consumer has the right to seek constitutional remedy against unfair trade practices or exploitation. He/she can go to court to seek remedy and to get compensation depending on the degree of damage.

Question 9. Describe any five achievements of the consumer movement in India.

Answer:

  1. A company, for years, sold milk powder for babies all over the world as the most scientific product claiming to be better than mother’s milk. It took years of struggle before the company was forced to accept that it had been making false claims.
  2. Similarly, a long battle had to be fought with court cases to make cigarette manufacturing companies accept that their product could cause cancer. Hence, there is a need for rules and regulations to ensure protection for consumers.
  3. It took many years for organizations in India, and around the world, to create awareness amongst people. This has also shifted the responsibility of ensuring the quality of goods and services to the sellers.
  4. Because of all these efforts, the movement succeeded in bringing pressure on business firms as well as the government to correct business conduct, which may be unfair, and against the interests of consumers at large.
  5. A major step taken in 1986 by the Indian government was the enactment of the
  6. Consumer Protection Act 1986, popularly known as COPRA.
  7. There are today more than 700 consumer groups in the country.

Question 10. State the various ways in which a consumer is exploited by the manufacturers and the traders.

Or

What are various ways in which consumers are exploited in the market by the manufacturer and the traders?

Answer:

The Main Ways Of Exploitation Of Consumers Are:

Adulteration: Mixing or substituting undesirable materials in food causing heavy loss of money and spoilage of health.

False Claim: Sellers make false claims about the quality of the product through advertisement.

Undermeasurement: Sellers generally undermeasure the goods and charge the actual price.

Hoarding And black marketing: Essential commodities are hoarded by traders to create an artificial crisis and sell them at higher prices.

Substandard Goods: In order to make more profit, sellers usually sell inferior quality goods.

High Price: Traders dealing with necessities generally charge arbitrary prices.

Duplicate Articles: In the name of genuine goods, duplicate items are sold.

Lack Of Safety Devices: Locally produced electronic appliances lack the inbuilt safeguards due to which consumers are harmed.

Question 11. What are the duties that consumers must fulfill to secure the right?

Answer:

Duties Of Consumers:

  1. Consumers should be more alert and questioning about the price and quality of goods and services.
  2. Consumers must be assured to get a fair deal.
  3. To organize together as consumers, to develop the strength and influence to promote and protect their interests.
  4. To purchase ISI or AGMARK marked products.
  5. To ask for the cash memo.
  6. To complain for genuine grievances.
  7. Consumers should know their rights and must exercise them.

Question 12. “Consumer movements can be effective only with the active involvement of the consumers”. Support the statement with two arguments.

Answer:

  1. The Indian government has enacted the Consumer Protection Act 1986. It can be implemented effectively only with the participation of people. People should be aware of their rights and duties. They should be vigilant in the market against any unethical practices.
  2. More and more consumer protection councils should be formed in towns and cities to make people aware of consumer exploitation, and consumers should lodge complaints against the incidence of exploitation. It is the ignorance and illiteracy of the consumers that the traders exploit in the market.
  3. Consumers should observe 24 December as the National Consumers Day with vigor and zeal.

Question 13. To protect the interests of the consumers, the government adopted three strategies – legislative, administrative, and technical. What do you mean by these strategies?

Answer:

  1. The legislative measure includes the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, of 1986.
  2. The administrative measure includes the distribution of essential commodities through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
  3. The technical measure consists of the standardization of products. The products with ISI marks are popular. BIS caters to industrial and consumer goods. AGMARK is for agricultural products.

Question 13. What is legislation concerning consumer rights?

Answer:

The government has enacted the Consumer Protection Act 1986 to provide for the establishment of Consumer Disputes Redressal Agencies at the District, State, and National levels for the protection and promotion of consumer interests and to redress their grievances in a speedy, simple, and inexpensive way.

The agencies have to dispose of each and every complaint within three months. At the district level, it is called the ‘District forum’.

At the state level, it is called ‘State Forum’. At the national level, it is called the ‘National Consumer Commission’, which is the apex court under the Act. It functions in Delhi.

These courts look into grievances and complaints of the consumers against the traders and manufacturers and provide the necessary relief and compensation to the consumers.

Question 14. People make complaints about the lack of civic amenities such as bad roads or poor water and health facilities but no one listens. Now the RTI Act gives you the power to question. Do you agree?

Answer:

Yes, I agree with the statement that the RTI Act gives citizens the power to question. The Act ensures its citizens all the information about the functions of government departments.

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