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 programme in collaboration with BRM Government Law College in Guwahati at the College premise 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, outnumbering people three to one. As more people come online across the world and our connection to the internet becoming 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, he said.
Giving a special insight on anti-tobacco movement, Hridaya Pankaj Das of CLPF informed that according to Global Adult Tobacco Survey report 48.2 per cent of adults in Assam consume tobacco in some form or the other in which 62.9 per cent constitute males and 32.9 per cent females.
Assam has shown a significant rise of nine per cent in overall tobacco consumption from 39.3 per cent during the last survey in 2009-10 to 48.2 per cent, now compared to six per cent decline in national average.
Dr Bhupesh Malla Buzarbaruah, principal of BRM Government Law College and Amar Jyoti Sarmah, guest faculty of the law college were also present in the programme as guests 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 attending in the public meeting-cum-awareness programme also take part in open house discussion.