Now is the time for aware consumers to use their votes to demand action, by pitching for good governance and accountable markets.

The yearly World Consumer Rights Day (March-15) is here again. This is a good time to sit up and take a look at what that translates into, for consumers across the country. More so, because election time is just round the corner too. As we careen into the processes of globalisation, for better or for worse, the market as well as the service sector is turning very volatile.

The need for strict vigilance in all directions is on the cards.

India's middle class consists of you and I, and we together, can definitely make a difference, at all times and for everyone, but more so during elections. Together we form a formidable bastion and can translate words into deeds and ask for transparency, accountability, safety and choice.

Our work at VOICE is always focused on increasing consumer awareness and involvement in the democratic processes of the country. This can acquire an edge now that our vote can be made to focus attention on a variety of issues. The perennial ones, for access to basic needs and a safe environment should form the bottomline agenda of anybody vying for political power.

The issue, however that is crying out for attention is the one concerning Water.
Even while China has declared its intention of harnessing the 'Brahmaputra' in Tibet, our politicians are throwing around feelers about the interlinking of rivers, ostensibly aimed at increasing availability of this natural resource by creating a distribution map of canals and channels. Abysmal consumer ignorance and indifference, coupled with lack of stringent policies have already played havoc with our water resources, causing the death of several rivers and polluting the disappearing water table. To add to our water woes, an ill-considered and ecologically-unsound redistribution of water might be the last straw.

Consumers need to wake up and ask for a public debate on the subject. Some mistakes are costly and can have far reaching consequences for consumers through many generations to come. This is the time for the consumer lobby to voice its concerns and ask for accountability in all matters.

As mobility in all sectors of our lives increases, so do the threats to our health and safety. From pedestrians to jet-setters, consumers encounter untold and unseen risks everywhere. Even as science and medicine claim to control many of the familiar health hazards, new ones are surfacing everyday. Everything acquires a global presence at the blink of an eye, as media begins tolling the alarm bells, which reverberate across nations. In the last few years, from AIDS to the Mad Cow disease, SARS and now Avian Flu, (incidentally most of these emanate from animals of one kind or the other),viruses respect no territories. All this is because we first industrialize the food sector in the name of quality control and when that myth explodes, we unleash an unprecedented blood bath by slaughtering the beleaguered animals in millions. Half the world dies of hunger, while we burn and sink standing harvests or kill and incinerate countless animals.

Where is the safety and what is the choice for consumers, when their consumption patterns and preferences have to be disrupted and anxieties planted in their minds concerning food safety?

Now is the time to ask for sanity and clarity in rules and regulations. Good governance must control and minimize risks and ensure safety.
This is a wakeup call for our subscribers to support our work and join hands with us to take on whatever is unsafe and unethical in our lives.