Kamala Nehru College has been the pioneer in Delhi University for establishing its Consumer Club on 29th November 2005. The aim of the Consumer Club is “to educate the students to act as healthy consumers by making them aware about their rights and redress mechanisms so as to act as beacons for the society”. The Club is being managed and exuberantly run by select faculty members and student office bearers. The Club believes that an aware consumer is an asset for any society and its motto is “Speak up to be heard”. The Club releases its annual magazine, ‘Awaken’, aimed at inculcating consumer awareness, consumer rights and responsibilities.
To ignite young minds and to spread consumer awareness Consumer Club at KNC organizes Seminars, Workshops and talks on a regular basis. Its Annual Event ‘Consumidor’ involves enthralling participation of students from various colleges. The Club has organized Seminars on various themes such as Consumer Rights, Quality and Standardization - Role of BIS, Role of Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution, Food Safety: Combating Adulteration, Cyber Laws in India, Digital Literacy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Misleading Advertisements and has invited distinguished academicians, judges and members of Consumer Forum, Consumer Organisations and industry. Students of the Consumer Club have organised outreach programs in various schools and also performed Nukkad Natak at Consumer Mela at Connaught Place and Dilli Haat. The members of the Consumer Club have participated in a live program “Meri Baat” on Consumer Rights on Doordarshan.
The aim of the Consumer Club at Kamala Nehru College is to educate the students to act as healthy consumers by making them aware about their rights and redress mechanisms and to act as beacons for the society. We have been working for the enlightenment of consumers who would raise their voice against unfair trade practices and who are empowered to protect themselves and make “consumer sovereignty” a reality. Consumer Club was established on 29th November 2005 and our college is the pioneer in Delhi University for launching it. Consumer Club regularly releases its Annual bulletin, ‘Awaken’. The issue brings forth a spectrum of articles, events organized by the club. The club organized various programmes in 2019.
The Club organized a Seminar on “Consumer Rights and Protection Awareness” on 30th August 2019 in the New Seminar Room. The occasion was graced by the Honourable speakers- Dr Jayshreee Gupta, Director, Consumer India and Dr. Sushila, Project Director from National Law University, Delhi. The house in session saw a turnout of about 300 enthusiastic young minds, along with the various faculty members. The seminar aimed at briefing the crowd about the inception of the Consumer Rights and Protection Act of 2019 and further addressing issues associated with consumer exploitation. Dr Sushila took the floor and described the drawbacks of the previous Indian Consumer Law of 1986, the need to revamp it and some salient features of the new act. The bill that received accent on August 2019 intends to “tackle the traditional problems of Indian consumers and the challenges posed by online transactions, multi-level marketing or direct selling” and vanquishing the pre-existing defects like “lack of awareness, expensive remedy, and misleading advertisements and delays in the system”. According to Dr Sushila the Bill shall serve the purpose of “providing protection of interest of consumers and for the said purpose, to establish authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumer disputes.” Terms like Product Liability, Central Consumer Protection Authority, means to legal aid and rights of consumers were discussed in great detail. Dr Sushila also mentioned the principal initiatives taken by NLU Delhi itself towards the path of creating a safer and more informed society for consumers through practices like court visits, intervention complains, awareness rallies, consumer surveys, seminars, and frequent publications.
What followed was a very interactive discussion between the students and Dr Jayshree about past and personal consumer scandals. She answered all the queries of the audience members by giving her expert opinion on the subject matter and provided deeper personal insights. It was indeed a wholesome and a productive session as great enthusiasm and participation was witnessed pouring out of the students from all corners of the room. The lively session came to an end as the guests were each presented with a sapling as a token of appreciation for their benign presence at the seminar and for enlightening our students. They were thanked for sharing their wisdom in the successful session gone by.
Various students of Consumer Club, Kamala Nehru College participated in the meme making competition collocated by Satark- the Consumer Club of PGDAV College, Delhi University on 5thOctober 2019. Ritika Chhatwal of our college won the meme making competition. On 25th September 2019 Awaken- The Consumer Club of Kamala Nehru College organised an inter-college Poster Making Competition on the topic: ‘Misleading Advertisement and Digital Consumers’, aimed to highlight the ever growing fraudulent culture witnessed in the marketing industry that takes the help of tools like unproven facts, stereotypes, and corrupt information to often misguide the buyers, sets ugly beauty standards and the illusion of perfect body that the teenagers desperately seek to achieve.
On 5th November 2019, a multi competition event COMQUEER was organised by the College of Vocational Studies, Sarita Vihar, that saw the coming of numerous young and enthusiastic teams from various prestigious colleges of the Delhi University. Our college participated in two events: Kapitalista and Pitcher pirates. Our college bagged the fourth position. With the hope of creating a more informed society of young and passionate individuals, the students at NLU Delhi organised a free legal help camp for the District Public Park, Dwarka. Dr SheetalKapoor, the teacher convenor for Awaken, along with members of our society, graced the occasion as one of the opening speakers for the day. Awaken started an online quiz competitions for testing the inquisitive minds, Look at the Ad.
Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi became the proud partner of The Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation Consumer Campaign, run by the celebrated Children Rights activist and the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shri Kailash Satyarthi who is also the founder of multiple social activist organizations, including Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Global March Against Child Labour, Global Campaign for Education, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation, and the Good Weave International. The collaboration will enable us to be one step closer to the process of creating a global platform for prevention of exploitation and violence against children at the grassroots. We aim to engage with children, stakeholders in communities for creating a children friendly environment. Through our campaigns we aim to mobilise and inspire diverse groups to free children from exploitation and slavery. The institution will strive to strengthen the generation and the use of research driven evidence for creating a child friendly world.
