National Consumer Day and the Environment

By – Dr. N. Munal Meitei
National Consumer Day is celebrated on December 24th to raise awareness about consumer rights and responsibilities. The relationship with the environment is primarily addressed through promoting the sustainable consumption and the consumer’s right to a healthy environment.
Consumers, ecology and environment are the three dimensions of existence encompassing all areas of life on Planet Earth. The balance among the three can be maintained only if the extent of their mutual dependence is comprehended. None of these can have an existence independent of the others and yet the fragility of their interrelationship makes each vulnerable.
Consumers had the misconception, that they are in control and that environment and ecology are around only for their needs. The consumers’ mindless exploitation of the environment and the eco-system have brought mankind frighteningly close to extinction, like many other life forms. The need of the hour is to halt in our tracks and take stock of the situation and initiate steps to combat the situation. As a consumer, we need access to legal, cultural, scientific and various other areas of knowledge for survival on the Earth.
The Urban Consumers are mainly market dependent and have less links with the environment whereas the Rural Consumers are in contrast and they have an immediate and direct access to the environment as they mostly depend on nature. Their life-style care for nature and its renewable resources. If we take care of nature, then nature will take care of us. The Green Consumer always aware the environmental issues and try to minimize the negative impact on the environment. A green consumer respect the interdependence of man and environment and does not have an exploitative or wasteful attitude towards the natural resources.
Reduce, reuse, recycle and reject, use of non-biodegradable consumer products has emerged asthe characteristic of an Aware Consumer. To reduce the needs and reuse any product as manytimes as possible and he individually recycling is the way of an Aware Consumer.
Twentieth century saw developments in all spheres of human activity. Scientific and industrial progress changed and altered life-styles and attitudes in radical ways. Man’s relationship with his environment had been undergoing changes to the detriment of the latter. The causes of which were, burgeoning populations, and economic strategies which controlled, manipulated and exploited the environment for short terms immediate profit of a limited number of people. The question of Green Consumer is a time tested for survival in relationship to the environment.
A Consumer need to reduce ozone depleting chemicals and anything the enhance global warming. The role of woman in green consumer is closely related to the women empowerment. Many studies have revealed that women make the purchase decisions which influence both individual, family units. Therefore, for any consumer awareness program to be successful, woman need to be specifically targeted. If the woman can become aware and informed consumers, many environmental problems could be automatically solved. Women have also been acknowledged to be the reservoir of traditional wisdom regarding eco-friendly patterns of survival in a whole range of life-styles.
Ways of preserving and reusing old articles, recycling household waste and discarded clothing is also taken care of by woman. Methods of contraception, child rearing, herbal cures, cosmetic and beauty aids are prepared and used from local flora and fauna by Indian woman. But with the spread of urbanization these techniques are threatened with extinction. Therefore, not only for good consumerism, documentation is required for preserving and promoting the established link of women with the nature.
The role of NGOs also plays an essential in campaigning for good consumers and the environments towards sustainability. NGOs can act as intermediaries between the government and consumers at micro level. Since the NGOs have the opportunity to work with people at grass-root level, they can urge people to go for good consumerism towards environmental health.
In developing countries like India, the impact of consumer awareness movement is beginning to a wide scale. To educate consumers about the environmental impact of their purchasing choices, to encourage citizens to adopt sustainable practices, such as reducing waste, using eco-friendly products and supporting ethical businesses and to advocates people for policies, such as single-use plastics, which protect both consumers and the environment.
In the same time under the Consumer Protection Act, consumers have fundamental rights, which implicitly and sometimes explicitly connect to environmental concerns such as Right to Safety, Right to Information and Right to a Healthy Environment to live and work that is non-threatening to the well-being of present and future generations. The Government of India’s campaigns, “Jago Grahak Jago” the campaign started by the Department of Consumer Affairs in 2005, consumers play a significant role as a driving force to shift towards more sustainable and environmentally conscious practices. This comprehensive awareness drive aims to transform passive consumers into informed citizens who understand their rights, recognize quality standards and know how to seek redressal when faced with unfair trade practices.
The National Consumer Day highlights that being an “informed consumer” now includes understanding the environmental footprint of one’s purchases including the right to a healthy environment, sustainable consumption, eco-labelling and transparency and tackling plastic pollution.
Therefore, oncoming the National Consumer Day-2025, citizens are encouraged to take pledges to reduce and recycle, support ethical brands, practice energy conservation and educate others on collective combat on climate change and pollution for a healthy Environment.
(The author is Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel, email- [email protected])