Mediation Analysis of Consumer Awareness Level in Delhi- NCR under CPA 2019

Abstract

Protection of consumer welfare is the duty of the government not only today but since ancient times, ADHARMA i.e the act of adulteration was as old as Mauryan region (i.e.300 B.C.) and considered with disgrace and selling of adulterated food articles was forbidden. Quite a large number of acts were ratified by the Government of India with the view of consumer protection.  The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is considered as the landmark in the Indian history of socio-economic regulation to protect the consumers from unfair trade practices. Different from the other laws which are more inclined towards prevention of consumers, the provisions of this act provides compensatory relief to the consumers. The Constitution of India consists of various articles which advocate protection of consumers besides CPA, 2019 which was ratified by our government.

 CPA was formulated to protect the interest of the consumers but its success depends on how well consumer is aware about various issues faced during their day to day purchases. The paper intends to measure Awareness Level of Consumers of Delhi- NCR. The real problems for exploitation of consumers arise when Consumers were ignorant about their rights and duties. The results of structural equation modeling analyses conducted for 500 consumers from Delhi-NCR, offered strong support for the proposed model. We found that complaint found by consumers was directly associated with their level of awareness. This study theoretically contributes to the consumer awareness literature by revealing how level of awareness completely mediates the relationship between complaint found and kind of complaint. The study also offers practical implications by stressing the significant role of consumer awareness in protecting their own interest and save them from being exploited in the marketplace by the vendors/ traders.