Awareness Programme on World Consumer Rights Day By CLPF

GUWAHATI: To create awareness among the student community and common people about consumer rights and laws on World Consumer Rights Day, the Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum (CLPF) organized a public meeting-cum-awareness program in collaboration with BRM Government Law College, Guwahati at the College premise here from 1.30 pm on Friday.

This year, the theme of the World Consumer Rights Day is “Trusted Smart Products”. Speaking on the theme, Arindom Borah of CLPF stated that globally, there are currently 23.1 billion smart products in the world, outnumbering people three to one. As more people come online across the world and our connection to the internet becomes better and faster, smart products will become more of a day-to-day reality for consumers everywhere, marking a major change in the way many consumers interact with products and services. The emergence of smart technology brings many opportunities for consumers; access to new services, more responsive products, greater convenience and choice. There are, however, some significant causes for concern: lack of security, privacy and meaningful choice over how we use them, as well as a lack of clarity about who is responsible when things go wrong. There are also issues around lack of access, with millions of people globally locked out of this new technology by overly high data charges.

A special insight of Anti-Tobacco Movement, Hridaya Pankaj Das of CLPF informed that according to GATS-2 (Global Adult Tobacco Survey) report 48.2 percent of adults in Assam consume tobacco in some form or the other in which 62.9 percent constitute males and 32.9 percent females. Assam has shown a significant rise of 9 % in overall tobacco consumption from 39.3 percent during the last survey in 2009-10 to 48.2 percent now compared to 6 % decline in national average. Dr Bhupesh Malla Buzarbaruah, Principal of BRM Government Law College and Amar Jyoti Sarmah, Guest Faculty of BRM Government Law College also present in the program as a Guest and gave emphasis on the implementation of the existing Consumer Laws in real sense and create awareness among the common consumers about their rights. Students attended in the public meeting-cum-awareness programme also took part in the open house discussion.

Also Read: GUWAHATI CITY