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1 A STUDY ON THE AWARENESS OF CONSUMER RIGHTS IN COIMBATORE DISTRICT A.KOKILA 1 C.MANISHA 2 1 Research Guide & Assistant Professor of NGM College, Pollachi. 2 Research Student, PG Department of International Business, NGM College, Pollachi. ABSTRACT Consumer protection means protecting the rights of the consumer against various unfair trade practices. A consumer seeks protection, advice and information, when his rights are adversely affected. This study has been conducted in Coimbatore district about awareness of consumer rights among consumers, survey method of data collection has been used to collect primary data. Sample contains 200 respondents which have been selected by convenient sampling method. Percentage analysis, Chi-square Test and Friedman rank test have been used to analyze the data. Finally, this paper tries to suggest some measures that should be undertaken by the government, business houses and consumer themselves to protect the interest on the consumer. INTRODUCTION In a free market economy, it is said that consumers rule the economy through the pricing mechanism. But in reality the consumer is dictated by the unscrupulous trading community. He is the one who suffers most from various unfair trade practices such as adulterated and sub-standard goods, short weights and measures, wrong descriptions in advertising, damaged goods, higher prices, imperfect packaging, misbranding, black-marketing, hoarding and the like. Therefore consumer should be protected from such unfair trade practices in order to make possible a healthy economy in the country, which includes the welfare of the consumer. Consumer protection means protecting the rights of the consumer against various unfair trade practices. A consumer seeks protection, advice and information, when his rights are adversely affected.india is a vast country where a majority of consumer is poor, helpless and disorganized. Further the market in India is generally seller s market and it is very easy to deceive to the innocent consumers who seem to be neither knowledgeable nor well informed. The consumer needs support and protection from the unscrupulous seller. A common consumer is not in a position to approach a civil court for acquiring and an affordable speedy justice against his complaints. In order to tackle this, the government has lent its hands in a different way. The Central Government enacted a law in the year 1986 for the protection and welfare of consumers. Consumer s Protection Council is a social movement which seeks to protect and augment the rights of the consumer relation to the product and service. In a developing country like India, measures for consumer protection are very much required. The illiteracy and ignorance of the majority of consumers both in the rural and the urban areas provide opportunities for business communities to follow unfair trade practices. These have to be curtailed through various measures of the Government and other non-governmental organizations. Further, the consumers should be informed, guided and educated properly because of the technical complexity of consumer goods. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY To analyze the personal profile of the consumer To study the awareness of consumer rights among the general public 40 editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

2 To study the awareness of consumer protection act among the consumer in India REVIEW FROM RELATED STUDIES InduKarki and NeelamMehrotra (2008) analyzed the level of awareness regarding standard marks (ISI, Agmark and FPO), consumer rights, and acts association of the education of respondents with the awareness of standard marks, acts and rights. Data of 120 homemakers pointed out that awareness of ISI mark was highest among homemakers followed by Agmark. Relationship between education and the awareness of marks of the respondents was significant; it also revealed that awareness of right to choose was highest among homemakers. JatinderKishtwaria et al., (2006) in his comparative Study Of Consumer Awareness Among Males And Females Of Kangra District Of Himachal Pradesh revealed that a significant difference between the awareness level of the male and female respondents regarding consumer terminology and consumer protection laws. Male were more aware about the popular consumer terminologies than females Nidhi Gupta and PritiPanchal (2009) studied on extent of awareness and food adulteration detection in selected food items purchased by home makers; they concluded that respondents, awareness related to rights and responsibilities was good but poor related to food adulteration. Greater consumer vigilance and action alone can help improve the situation, but such efforts are not fruitful unless consumer themselves are aware of their rights and responsibilities. K. Singh et al (2010) investigated a comparative study of the awareness of provisions of consumer protection act among dental and medical professionals in Udaipur city, Rajasthan, India. The distribution of the study topics according to their gender, profession, level of education and type of practices which revealed that women had a slightly lesser awareness of consumer protection act compared to men among all the professionals men dedicate more time to regular practice. Hence, both professions need to update their understanding on consumer protection act and its amendments to be on a legally safer side. Thanulingum and Kochadai (1989) conducted a study on evaluation of consumer awareness in Madurai city. The results showed that majority of the consumers were aware of consumer protection act followed by consumer rights and consumer protection councils. But very few people were aware of approaching and lodging complaints to the councils and membership in the council. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The scope of the study reveals the Awareness of consumer rights among the consumer. It is confined with special reference to Coimbatore district. The vital purpose of the study has been conducted to identify about the awareness of the consumer rights among the consumer and the aware of the consumer organization around business scenario. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research design used here is descriptive research. In this, the researcher has no control over the variables. Convenient sampling technique was followed to collect data of the study. Samples consist of 200respondents from different areas of Coimbatore District which consists of urban and semi-urban centres.the statistical tools used are Chi Square, Simple Percentage and Friedman Rank test. 41 editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

3 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS TABLE 1: AGE STRUCTURE AGE( in years) CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE Below to to to Above From the above table it is found that 16(8%) consumers belong to the age group below 20, 101(50.5%) consumers belong to the age group 21 to 30 years, 47(23.5%) consumers belong to the age group 31 to 40 years, 27(13.5%) consumers belong to the age group 41 to 50 years, 9(4.5) consumers belong to the age group above 51 years. TABLE 2: GENDER COMPOSITION GENDER CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE Male Female The above table reveal that out of 200 consumers, 72(36%) of the consumers are male and 128(64%) are female. TABLE 3: PLACE OF RESIDENCE PLACE CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE Rural Urban TOTAL From the above table it is found that out of 200 consumers 77(38.5%) consumers are living in the rural area, 123(61.5%) consumers are living in the urban area. TABLE 4: OCCUPATIONS STATUS OCCUPATION CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE Business Professional Employer Employee Student Others editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

4 The Table conclude that Out of 200 consumers, 60(30%) consumers are doing business, 28(14%) consumers belong to Professional category, 17(8.5%) consumers belong to Employer category, 40(20%) consumers belong to Employee category, 24(12%) consumers student, 31(15.5%) consumers are others (housewife). TABLE 5: EDUCATIONAL PROFILE EDUCATION CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE School level Up to UG PG Professional 16 8 Others 14 7 The table shows that out of 200 consumers 30(15%) consumers belong to the school level education, 115(57.5%) consumers are educated up to under graduate,25(12.5%)consumers have done their post graduation, 16(8%)consumer belong Professionals category and 14(7%)consumers belong to the others level (diploma, certificate courses) of education. TABLE 6: MONTHLY INCOME MONTHLY INCOME IN CONSUMERS PERCENTAGE RS No formal income Less than 10, ,001 to 30, ,001 to 40, Above 40, No income The table above shows that out of 200 consumers 25(16.23%) consumers are earning less than Rs10,000, 15(9.74%) consumers monthly income of Rs10,001 to 20,000, 57(37.01%) consumers earn their monthly income between 20,001 to 30,000, 38(24.67%) consumers monthly earning are 30,001 to 40,000, 19(12.33%) consumers monthly earning are Above 40,001, 46(29.87%) of the consumers are no income people. TABLE 7: AWARENESS ON CONSUMER ACT AWARENESS CONSUMER PERCENTAGE Yes No The table shows that out of 200 consumers 124(62%) consumer are aware of consumer act 76(38%) consumer are not aware of consumer act 43 editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

5 CHI SQUARE TEST TABLE 8: AWARENESS OF CONSUMER RIGHT VS PLACE OF RESIDENCE In order to identify whether there exist any significant association between the place and awareness of consumer right Chi-Square test is applied. Ho: There exist no significant association between place of residence and awareness of consumer right S.NO INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AWARENESS OF CONSUMER RIGHT PLACE OF RESIDENCE RURAL URBAN TOTAL 1 Newspaper Friends/neighbour Television Media Carrier Total Calculated x 2 Value = d. f. =4 Table Value of x significance level =9.4 Table Value of x significance level =7.7 From the table it clearly signifies that the calculated value is lesser than the table value hence Ho is accepted. Hence there is no significant association between Place and Awareness of consumer right. TABLE 9: EDUCATION QUALIFICATION VS AWARENESS OF CONSUMER RIGHT In order to identify whether there exist any significant association between the education qualifications with awareness on consumer protection act Chi-Square test is applied. Ho: There exist no significant association between Education qualification and awareness of consumer right. S.NO EDUCATION QUALIFICATION AWARENESS YES TOTAL 1 School Under graduate Post graduate Professional Others Total Calculated x 2 Value = d. f. =4 Table Value of x significance level =9.4 NO Table Value of x significance level = editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

6 From the table it clearly signifies that the calculated value is more than the table values hence the Ho is rejected.. Hence there a significant association between Educational qualification with consumer protection act and its enactment. FRIEDMAN RANK TEST TABLE 10 AWARENESS OF CONSUMER ACT AMONG THE CONSUMERS S.NO PARTICULARS MEAN 1 Agricultural protection act Drugs & cosmetic act Essential commodity act Prevention of Black marketing act Prevention of Food adulteration act Standard weight & Measurement act MRTP act Consumer protection act Environment protection act Trade & merchandise market act 1.55 From above table, the consumers are highly aware of Consumer protection act followed by Agricultural protection act, standard weight and measurement act, MRTP act, Environment protection act, Drugs & cosmetic act, Essential commodity act, Black marking act, Food adulteration and Trade and merchandise market act. FINDINGS CHI SQUARE Most of the respondent (50.5%) belong to the age group of 21 to 30 years. Majority of the respondents are female (64%) Business (30%) is the major occupation of the respondents. Majority of the respondents reside in urban area (61.5%) (57.5%) of the respondents are under graduate Majority levels of income of the respondents are between Rs 20,001 and 30,000 Majority of (62%) of the consumer are aware of consumer act. There is no significant association between Place and Awareness of consumer right. There is significant association between Educational qualification with awareness of consumer protection act and its enactment. FRIEDMAN RANK TEST SUGGESTIONS Almost all the consumer has awareness about consumer protection act. Government organization can promote consumer right awareness program by conducting motivational campaign on consumer rights. Department of consumer Awareness shall provide adequate publicity for utilizing the national and state consumer helpline. The rights and responsibilities of consumer and seller should be displayed in e- shops of India so that both the buyer and seller can be aware of their rights. 45 editor.researchscripts@gmail.com

7 CONCLUSION Government should include ideas relating to consumer education in the curriculum of schools and colleges. It may be conclude that even then introducing several law to protect the rights of the consumers. The awareness of those rights among the consumer as India is a vast country where a majority of consumer is poor, helpless and disorganized. Further the market in India is generally a seller s market and it is very easy to exploited consumers who seem to be neither knowledgeable nor well informed. The consumer needs support and protection from the unscrupulous seller. A common consumer is not in a position to approach a civil court for acquiring and an affordable speedy justice against his complaints as due to lack of awareness of their rights so the government has to implement the above offered suggestions in strict way then entire consumer community will be educated to a maximum extent about their rights and finally developed to great extent. REFERENCES InduKarki and NeelamMehrotra, (2008), Awareness of standard marks, consumer rights and acts, Journal of Dairying, Foods and Home Sciences, Vol. 27 (3/4), pp JatinderKishtwaria, Shikha Sharma, Avinash Sharma and ArunaRana, (2006), Comparative Study of Consumer Awareness among Males and Females of Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, Journal of Human Ecology, Vol. 20(4), pp K. Singh, S. Shetty, N. Bhat, A. Sharda, A. Agrawal and H. Chaudhary, (2010), Awareness of Consumer Protection Act among Doctors in Udaipur City, India, Journal of Dentistry of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp KaurSurinderji, Dhilton M K and Batish S. (2005), Awareness and utilization of consumer welfare services and legislations among urban women, Journal of Research, Vol. 42 (2), pp Nidhi Gupta and PritiPanchal, (2009), Extent of awareness and food adulteration detection in selected food items purchased by homemakers, PakistanJournal of Nutrition, Vol. 8 (5), pp Thanulingam, N. and Kochadai, M, (1989), An evaluation of consumer awareness, Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. 19 (8), pp editor.researchscripts@gmail.com