P.V.V.S. Murthy, a 78-year-old consumer rights activist and former member of the Krishna District Consumer Forum from Vijayawada, has been campaigning for consumer rights and creating awareness among the public for decades.
Sensing the need for a large scale movement to create awareness of the existing provisions nationwide, Mr. Murthy, who currently teaches international business studies at the Acharya Nagarjuna University, started the 'Consumer Advocacy Group'.
Mr. Murthy was initially a businessman when he used to campaign for consumer rights for Rotary Club, and over time turned into a full-time consumer rights activist.
The group which is organised through WhatsApp has over 750 members in four sub-groups from all the States in the country. It has former bureaucrats, former judges, lawyers, several academicians and others as members, and a majority of them are from the Telugu States, Mr. Murthy says.
"I started the group in 2017 with about 50 like-minded people and it remained static till a year ago. Later, with the help of Prof. Suresh Mishra, an expert in consumer affairs from the Indian Institute of Public Administration and others, I was able to rope in more members from several States. The group also has NRIs from 10 countries and there are at least 30 members in six States," Mr. Murthy says.
About the activities of the group, Mr. Murthy said the members who are primarily connected through WhatsApp have recently met in their respective States on the occasion of Consumer Solidarity Day and discussed the activities to be taken up.
“Through the group, we are providing all help necessary for a consumer to represent his case in the consumer forums without appointing an advocate,” he said. “In many cases, consumers can directly serve notice on the business or service provider, but many are not aware of such provisions. In one such case, a consumer of an online travel agency was not given the refund amount promised after the trip had been cancelled by the agency itself. After waiting for several months, the person approached our group and we directed him to send a notice on the company stating that he would move the consumer forum if there was no response. The agency responded and refunded his amount in 10 days,” Mr. Murthy said.
Mr. Murthy further said that such small actions can resolve several issues, but unfortunately many consumers do not take them up. Lack of awareness of consumer rights is high in the rural areas of the country and we try to focus on creating awareness among the rural population, he added. To sensitise our members, we have been conducting webinars frequently, he said.
The group will be further consolidated once it gets over a thousand members, Mr. Murthy added.
