Consumer Clubs in schools spreading awareness
Creating awareness about consumers’ rights is the most effective way to reduce cases of people getting cheated; to make people aware at an early age is the best possible way to go about it.
With this is mind, this year, the State Consumer Affairs Department has opened Consumer Clubs in schools across Bengal. These clubs comprise students and are headed by the headmaster or assistant headmaster of the school.
During the financial year 2017-18, the department is providing assistance to 840 schools across the state, up from 400 during the last fiscal. This fiscal, the amount of financial assistance to each Consumer Club has also been doubled.
These clubs in schools provide another advantage too. The students are encouraged to discuss their activities in their homes, and thus, their parents also become aware about these rights.
The Consumer Affairs Department, during the rule of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government, has been very active in spreading awareness, running regular campaigns on television and radio as well as outdoors on various aspects of consumer rights. It ran campaigns on huge screens and posters at the popular Durga Puja pandals too.
