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Greed is good The middle class, with its penchant for objects of desire, has given immense fillip to consumer culture

There is another section of the nouveau riche with enough disposable money ready to treat themselves to all kinds of luxury items at malls.

And then there is the lower middle class which is caught in the struggle of everyday life and the pressure of living in a society where inflation is a rule rather than an exception. Consumerism has become a phenomenon even with people with limited purchasing power. There is competition even among children who judge their fellows by the schools they go to, the shoes they wear, the bags they carry or the chocolates and other goodies they supply to the entire school to celebrate their birthday.

It was this extravaganza which prompted Lourdes Central School, Bejai, to stop children coming with chocolates to the school to mark their birthdays. Principal of the school, Grace Noronha defends the move saying: “We have children coming from different strata of society. When we sensed there was competition among students and parents to bring bigger and better chocolates and other goodies, which led to an inferiority complex among students, we thought it best to curb the tendency. Instead, we have to set up a ‘birthday fund box’ in the school to encourage children to contribute the money otherwise spent for chocolates for the benefit of students of low income groups.

The propensity to grab more has paved the way for an economy which has come a long way from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. This tendency has indubitably increased the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. But in a society where money talks and where brand value tends to add glamour and glitz, the Consumer Rights Movement certainly takes a backseat and is confined only to a small section of the society which values money and wants the worth of their hard-earned money.

Leading Consumer and Human Rights activist Dr. Ravindranath Shanbhogue puts it succinctly: “It is only those who do not work for 364 days of the year that observe Consumer Rights Day”.

Awareness about consumer rights is more in undivided Dakshina Kannada district as compared to other districts. “There are very few complaints in consumer courts of Mangalore and Udupi as people are exercising the alternative measures of getting justice and approach the court only as a last resort,” Dr. Shanbhogue explains. But rather than basking in the glory of what is achieved it is time we strive to make consumer movement a mass movement.

There is a rapidly increasing middle class who is a party for all the goodies in the world, tailor-made to suit its new found financial status, wants and luxuries. With easy money coming in, the consuming class is expanding and the value of money certainly is diminishing. The tendency witnessed in Bangalore will percolate down to tier two cities and towns in the near future.

Globalisation has no doubt reduced homogeneity of consumer behaviour which varies from place to place. Any movement can succeed only with the active co-operation and participation of the general public.

It is often said that consumer is sovereign and the king. But the king should be able to get the best without being made to go through the arduous path of fighting it out in the consumer courts.

Dakshina Kannada is no doubt in the forefront of consumer movement thanks to several organisations who have been actively guiding affected and gullible consumers.

Mahatma Gandhi had attached great importance to the customer whom he described as ‘poor consumer’. Needless to say the poor-rich consumer in the society gets the position he deserves just like ‘we get the government we deserve”.

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