Although Bangladesh has now become food self-sufficient, it is still lagging behind to provide food security to the consumers, said speakers at a seminar titled ‘Golden Jubilee of Independence: Expectation and Achievement in Food Security and Protecting Consumers Interest’ organized by Voluntary Consumers Training and Awareness Society or VOCTA.
To encounter these challenges and prevent violence of food safety and security, the speakers pointed out that government action and vast awareness among the citizens are mandatory.
The seminar was held at the auditorium of Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences (CARS) on the Dhaka University (DU) campus at around 10:30am on Saturday.
Presided over by Prof Hossain Uddin Shekhar, President of VOCTA, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder was present as the chief guest while Prof Mizanur Rahman, former Vice Chancellor of Jagannath University and Syed Ishtiaque Reza, chief executive officer of Global Television, addressed the programme as special guests.
VOCTA executive director Md Khalilur Rahman Sajal delivered the welcome speech while Mohosinul Karim Lebu, director of
VOCTA, presented the keynote paper. Besides, Prof Latiful Bari, chief scientist of CARS and M S Siddiqui, legal economist and advisor of Bangladesh Competition Commission, discussed the main essay.
The speakers in this seminar said the country did not reach its desired goal in protecting consumer rights.
“This is because the traders in the markets are in a favourable position whereas the consumers are helpless and in a dark situation. Still some unscrupulous syndicates are creating a fish out of water situation for the consumers by hiking prices of commodities and creating artificial crises in the markets,” said Md Khalilur Rahman Sajal.
Reflecting the rich situation of the country in the world stage in terms of food sufficiency, Mohosinul Karim said Bangladesh has largely become food self-sufficient, adding, “Especially in the production of grain and granular food products.”
However, he pleads that in the case of some import-dependent food products, we are still lagging behind, stressing, “Food producers, vendors, quality control authorities and consumers need to be more responsible to ensure food safety.”
Lack of awareness among consumers and buyer’s education management and presence of fraud syndicates, gap and limitations of the existing laws, reluctance of law enforcements to enforce the laws and absence of exemplary punishments are key reasons behind the violation of consumer right protection, Mohosinul figured out.
He also criticized the ‘downward activities’ of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Communication (BTRC), Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Communication (BERC), Bangladesh Competition Commission and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
He further said there is a necessity of establishing some specialised controlled institutions as well as an Advertisement Regulatory Commission besides the aforementioned institutions.
To get rid of this chaotic condition, he raised eight-point demands on behalf of the VOCTA including to ensure the proper and effective application of the existing laws for the protection of the recognized rights of the consumers and to make them up-to-date by amending if necessary, to set exemplary punishment for activities contrary to the interests of the consumer, to ensure neutrality of governmental institutions dedicated to safeguarding the interests of consumers above fear.
Other demands are to provide accurate information to the consumers so that they may get proper remedy under the prevailing law and to ensure the necessary co-operation, consumer representation in various forums and committees for decision making in the interest of the consumer and the inclusion of consumer education in the conventional curriculum. The keynote speaker also stressed on preventing fraudulent advertising formulating as a sound advertising policy, to erect specific laws and to form a commission to prevent fraudulence in E-commerce.
On the other hand, Prof M S Siddiqui reflected on the vast awareness among the citizens to uphold consumers’ interest. Echoing the same, Prof Latiful Bari said this ‘consumer movement’ will be abortive without mass awareness.
On the other hand, Syed Ishtiaque Reza said reflecting on the only consumers’ shortage of knowledge will be one kind of victim blaming as “the government did not reach to the masses and clear the laws related to the consumer rights.”
Former JnU Vice Chancellor Prof Mizanur Rahman said, “The conduction of a mobile court by a magistrate with some policemen is not called market monitoring. Rather its’ misdeed. He said consumers must be made selfish in terms of their interest.”
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said the markets are being monitored in various ways, not only through the mobile courts.
There are offices in the districts and the officers are working to accelerate awareness among the consumers, said the minister adding, “We have sent an application to the concerned ministry to include consumer rights in the curriculum.”
He also suggested the teachers could talk about the consumer’s rights in the classrooms for a few minutes and Imams of various mosques could in their speeches during Qutba on Fridays to spread awareness.
Prof Hossain Uddin Shekhar said teachers and students of educational institutions can play a big role in this regard.
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