[ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಶೀಘ್ರದಲ್ಲೇ ಬರಲಿದೆ — Kannada translation coming soon]
Ask students the following questions and analyse their responses as responsible consumers. Whenever there are many people say to get into a bus, or get product in a shop, always stand in a line. Queue discipline is important as a responsible consumer. How many students in the class follow simple queue discipline? (discuss what happens when queue discipline is disobeyed) While buying a product, why should the customer demand a receipt? (Only when the consumer has a receipt, he can complain to the court when he has problems with the product or services. Often to save taxes, or just out of sheer ignorance consumers do not secure receipts and later repent) When you find some strange things in a cool drink bottle or a cockroach in milk sachet, should you complain to the concerned authorities? ( when the merchant does not refund money, answer is obvious. However even when consumer gets a refund, depending upon the severity of adulteration, in the public interest, there is a need to complain) When some one charges more than what is printed as MRP, should you complain? (Find out how many students have exercised their rights and tried to pay as per the labels? Packaging act gives the right to consumer to pay exactly the amount printed or less under all circumstances. Violators can be taken to consumer courts) When you go to a bank where you are not properly served should you complain? When you are sold a shoddy product or given an outdated drug or even worse wrong drug what should you do? When a teacher does not teach properly or does not attend classes, should you be happy and not complain? ( This will be a difficult issue to be discussed by teachers. But this is an important issue because it could be your own son or daughter involved as a student. Student is a consumer and if there is a deficiency in service like delay in issuing certificates, wrongly recorded marks, etc students have the rights as consumers and have the right to seek justice.) When you go to a government hospital and doctor demands bribes to treat you, do you have the right to complain? ( Many talk openly about the need to pay bribe in government hospitals. But not even one comes forward to complain.) Government officers are they masters or civil servants? They need to be respected as any one else. But they need not be treated as masters the way they were pre independence
days. Ask how many students consider Tahalshidars/DCs/ministers/MLAs/ as “masters and not as their servants? The most important responsibility of a consumer living in a democracy is to exercise his rights of voting to elect the most competent, honest and dedicated leaders irrespective of caste and religion. Whenever your consumer rights are violated, it is not only your right to stand up for your rights, but it is your responsibility. A responsible consumer who always fulfills his responsibilities by taking up a civil cause, or agitates by refusing to pay a bribe in a government hospital, or in a tahalshidar’s office, or pay market price for PDS kerosene, is a good social worker. The teacher should convey this concept to students through some simple examples. To help the consumers, the government has enacted another progressive legislation called “Right to Information”. Under this act, any citizen can demand information by simply filling a form and paying a small fee. This act when imaginatively applied has helped the consumers to fight against corruption and also against government bureaucracy. In conclusion, Gandhi had rightly said the following about consumers, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work – he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him.” Feb 28, 2017 Will Mysoreans join environmentalists to save Kukkerhalli? Bhamy V. Shenoy It is a crying shame that Mysore University which has access to the science of harmful impact of desilting is bent upon carrying out the process at Kukkerhalli despite the protests by the environmentalists. It is difficult to find any expert who would support desilting given the limited technical ability to desilt without harming the lake. Authorities have not showed any study to show how desilting will help the lake.