JOIN USThe Niti Aayog recently published its first 'Health Index' indicating the overall situation of public healthcare in various states. There are other such indexes developed by international institutions and civil society organisations. For instance, the Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the World Corruption Index of Transparency International are well-known.
There are indexes that measure the quality of governance, democracy, freedom of the press, trust in the government, rule of law, etc. Basically, indexes are a multi-dimensional statistical tool used to describe the status of a country with regard to a specific issue. Despite their inherent limitations, indexes are being used to frame public policies.
While popular indices like the ones mentioned above, including the Consumer Price Index, are indirectly connected to consumers, the need for developing a special index to measure the quality and perception of 'Consumer Protection' is overdue.
The need to develop such a 'consumer protection index' (CPI) arises from the fact that consumers are the end-users of products and services. It is cons umers who absorb all the taxes and levies passed on by producers and service providers. Hence, it is their welfare and protection that should merit consideration. Particularly where the state has a major role in providing consumer services, CPI will go a long way in improving the quality of service, besides encouraging pro-consumer policy measures.
The CPI is different from the consumer satisfaction index (CSI), which benchmarks organisations on the basis of customer satisfaction and feedback obtained through surveys and analyses. The CSI includes consumer expectations, perceived quality, value, consumer complaints and consumer loyalty to the product or services of an industry. The surveys done to rate the best banks, colleges, universities, business schools, private hospitals, airlines, etc., conveniently ignore the consumer's perspective.
In case of medical services, the number of patients died, instances of adverse reaction due to wrong medicine/dosage, complaints received and filed in the consumer forums, compensation paid, doctors held guilty of negligence, etc., get no mention in surveys of private hospitals or diagnostic centres.
The Customer Quality Standards developed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India may be a starting point for an index that takes into account these important parameters.
The CPI is all the more necessary for state-owned services as a majority of consumers depend on them. Departments or institutions in charge of food safety, drugs and cosmetics, weights and measures, power, water and transport have a duty to protect consumer interest.
The traditional 3As - Availability, Accessibility and Affordability - of public services may form part of the CPI. The Jan Oushada centres are the best examples. The objective of these centres is to make essential medicines available at affordable prices. But accessibility is missing. In case of electricity and water availability, accessibility and affordability - all the three may be issues.
Inaccessible information
Service providers are mandated to maintain minimum standards of quality as prescribed by law. But information about their compliance or otherwise is not easily accessible. For example, what is the quality of water supplied by water boards across the country? How many consumers have died or have been injured in electrical accidents? How many complaints were lodged and what action has been taken by service providers to redress them? Independent regulatory authorities in banking, insurance, power and telecom have framed many regulations, most of them aimed to protect consumers. These may be used as benchmarks for developing CPI.
Consumer grievance redressal authorities and forums have been established under various laws. The functioning of these forums itself needs to be brought under the CPI. It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. As for consumer justice, it is justice derailed as well. Take a look at the functioning of consumer forums/commissions.
Available statistics indicate that over four lakh cases are pending. In Karnataka, over 9,600 cases are pending before the State Commission and over 8,600 cases before District Forums. As per the Consumer Protection Act, the complaints are to be disposed within 60-90 days.
Access to information is one of the rights of the consumers and should find a place in the CPI. How are the departments/service providers providing information to the consumers? What is the quality of the information? When is the information provided? How easy it is for the consumer to access information?
At the end of 2015-16, the number of RTI applications pending with various public authorities across the country was 11.65 lakh. The latest 'Annual Report' placed on the Karnataka Information Commission website relates to 2014-15. The number of appeals and complaints pending is 28,850. The statistics provided by the Department of Legal Metrology of Karnataka relates to 2010-11.
Given this state of affairs, it is high time an index to measure consumer protection is evolved.
(The writer is a member, Central Consumer Protection Council)