A few weeks ago CSE came out with a report on Cola brands in India claiming they had a very high Pesticide content. Although the report got struck on the issue of which standards to use the WHO’s or the EU’s, but one thing is for clear that the pesticide content is much higher than the EU limits in almost all the tests. So this is a case of breach of consumer trust, but what was the effect just a 15 % decrease in sales, a part of which is being attributed to the monsoons. Before this it was the bottled drinking water crisis, again many companies got away without any major loss of sales. Even before that it was the Synthetic milk crisis, again Mother Dairy and DMS got away without any loss. What comes out in all these cases apart from the indifferent attitudes of successive governments is that even the consumers have become more and more indifferent.
One of the foremost reasons for the lack of response from the consumers is the lack of alternatives; either direct supplements or similarly prized supplements are absent. So the consumer is forced into it, for e. g. milk and in some situations even cola’s and bottled water.
Another common reason is the lack of awareness amongst the consumers especially with the huge number of uneducated rural populace that we have. Another reason is that these agencies have lost their credibility and the consumers believe that these reports are simply another manifestation of corruption that is rampant in the society now days. There is another segment of people that believe that with them being exposed to so much pollution, chemicals, diseases etc. , such reports do not carry any meaning and to an extent they are correct as well. Consider that as per some government tests at least 50-60 percent of food and drinks on sale are contaminated in one way or another, and about half of them well above the international norms. Another reason is that the advertisement blitz by the cash rich companies gives them higher credibility than the laboratories and the NGO’s out to expose them.
The Term Paper on High Sale of Consumer Goods
Writing Task 2 of 6.1 Topic: Today, the high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree? (Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.) Dave’s answer: A hot debate, whether high sales of ...
So what is it that needs to be done? First of all the government needs to set up the set of rules that would govern these areas. Again and again our government has fallen back on the WHO guidelines forgetting that they are mere basic guidelines and the limits need to be set above them. Secondly the governments needs to tighten up the screws on its monitoring agencies, laboratories etc… Thirdly the handling of controversial issues needs to be a lot more coherent from the governments point of view (a ban in the parliamentary canteen is not enough).
As far as the companies are concerned, breach of consumer trust is a grave offence and they should be vary of this in future. Also they need to act much more responsibly in case of a crisis. For eg. in the latest Cola fiasco, the statements from there side were mainly trying to trivialize the issue. Instead they could have gone ahead and got there cola tested by some reputed lab. abroad or could have tried to arrange for some quality certification on their product.
Now the consumers, what can they do. Well it is for them that all the issues are being raked up, so they should be the most active out of them all.
