Taking stock: Members of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat at work. Photo: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Grahak Hitay, Grahak Sukhay (In the interest of the consumer, for the well-being of the consumer)” is its modest motto. It has a unique model of distribution that has worked without any glitches for 30 long years. It has created more than 20,000 “aware” consumers through its activities. It not only offers the best quality of goods handpicked by a team of women, it also provides them at prices 20 per cent cheaper than the market rates.The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) has proved that if they stand united, consumers can do wonders for the quality of their lives.

“The story of MGP starts in Pune in 1974,” says Dr Manohar Panajkar, its chairman, chatting in its Vile Parle office. In 1973-74, traders created a huge artificial scarcity of essential commodities in Maharashtra’s cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Angry Pune residents took to the streets in protest, provoked by political parties.

Pune-based RSS activist Bindu Madhav Joshi felt that effective distribution, not destruction, was the way out of the crisis. He got together with consumers and decided to form buying groups who could buy products in bulk from the manufacturer and distribute them directly to the group members. The idea received encouragement from consumers. Intellectuals and activists like music director Sudhir Phadke, journalist P.V. Gadgil, eminent writers P.. Deshpande, Gangadhar Gadgil and political activists Jayprakash Nara- yan, Madhu Mantri and Justice M.C. Chagla supported what came to be known as India’s first consumer movement. Pune’s model was implemented in Mumbai a year later under the name of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, which now has an annual turnover of Rs 22 crore.

“Due to the absence of the profit motive, not only our members, even the traders, manufacturers and agents are aware that we work in the interest of consumers,” says Dr Panajkar, a former BARC scientist who works full-time for the MGP.

The distribution model of MGP works on a simple principle. Local residents form buying groups comprising a minimum of 11 families and elect group leaders who distribute and collect a monthly grocery order form. Based on these order forms, the buying committee of the MGP visits markets, negotiates prices and places orders for the products. The group leader, meanwhile, collects the payments from the buying group and deposits them at the MGP central office. After the ordered goods arrive, MGP’s staff distributes the goods to each locality. The group leader ensures that they are delivered to each member of the buying group.

“This eliminates the middleman completely. Since we deal directly with the manufacturer, we can get the best quality of goods at prices which are at least 20 per cent cheaper than the market rates. Besides, there is no waste of goods as supply exactly matches the demand,” says the vice-chairperson of MGP, Pratibha Belwalkar.

Today, the MGP has 17 divisions in suburbs of Mumbai and Thane and more than 1,200 buying groups. At the core of this well-oiled distribution model is the 13-member bulk buying committee consisting of women. “The buying committee surveys the market and picks the best of the products. They travel to Madhya Pradesh to source the best wheat, or to Karnataka to source the best chilli or to Sangli for the best turmeric or to Punjab for the best basmati,” says Belwalkar.

Apart from its core activity of distribution, the MGP has expanded its activities to encompass the whole gamut of consumer issues including consumer education, research, and environmental awareness. Its bilingual monthly free newsletter, Grahak, plays a powerful role in disseminating information about various consumer issues and works as a communication tool between the MGP and its 20,000 members.

The Panchayat also runs 10 complaint cells in Mumbai where a panel of legal experts guides consumers on how to redress their complaints through the consumer courts. “In cases where a large number of consumers are affected, our legal cell headed by Shirish Deshpande fights cases on their behalf,” says Dr Panajkar.

International consumer organisations have lauded MGP’s efforts. But, the true marker of its achievements came last year when the residents of Mhondoro, a town in Zimbabwe, adopted its distribution model. MGP’s legal cell head and consumer activist Shirish Deshpande travelled to Mhondoro to launch the group, Consumer Action Group. It proved that this model has the potential to go global.

(Mumbai Grahak Panchayat: ph - 022 26238124; e-mail: mgp@bom5.vsnl.net.in)

MGP’s landmark cases

• Deals on wheels: In 1990, the MGP received complaints from 800 people who had booked two-wheelers from LML Vespa, but were not given the vehicles even after eight years. The MGP filed a case under the Consumer Protection Act and won a compensation of Rs 40 crore for the complainants.

• Butter or poison? In the Nineties, MGP discovered that Mumbai’s Worli and Aarey milk dairies were using Irish butter contaminated in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Supreme Court rejected the PIL seeking a ban on the radio-active butter. MGP took the agitation to the streets, forcing the Maharashtra government to withdraw the butter from the market.

• Culture shock: In April 1993, a vulgar advertisement by Haywards, a beer manufacturer, was withdrawn after MGP complained to the Advertisement Standards Council of India.