C.P. Rai types out a consumer rights complaint at his office in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar. Picture by Prem Singh

Mala Banerjee recalls a promise she made to Mother Teresa 28 years ago each time she prepares to launch into a fresh battle for justice — another day in consumer court.

The 50-year-old consumer rights activist is drafting complaints against four deaths allegedly caused by medical negligence at some of Calcutta’s best-known hospitals over the past one month.

“I didn’t know any of the victims. But once their relatives came to me for help, it is my battle to get them justice,” she says.

In one case, fluid meant to be injected intravenously was allegedly injected into the spinal cord of a patient undergoing chemotherapy. The patient died.

For each death, Banerjee will seek compensation of Rs 1 crore at the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

She may lack the glamour of Erin Brockovich, the California consumer rights activist played by Julia Roberts in an award winning film eight years ago, but Banerjee has helped dozens across Bengal find justice.

As a fresh law graduate just exiting her teens, Banerjee had worked at Mother’s Missionaries of Charity as an unpaid ayah.

“When I was leaving, Mother made me promise that I would continue to work for the people, and for free.”

Banerjee chose to work on consumer rights; she thought her legal training would help.

Nearly three decades later, she continues to help scores of ordinary people across Bengal fight consumer rights cases without charging them a rupee. She manages because of the wealthy family she married into, she laughs (her address: Premlata, seventh floor, 39 Shakespeare Sarani; phone: 22805927, mobile: 9831046377).

When a Nokia mobile phone with a defective battery exploded at the Calcutta home of Suman and Kishori Saha last year, the couple, who wanted action against the company, turned to Banerjee.

She helped the Sahas draft their complaint to the district consumer court, making sure they did not leave out crucial details that would strengthen their case.

Kishori was five months pregnant at the time and was just metres away from the phone when it exploded.

“Most people don’t recognise the strength of their case,” stresses Banerjee, who heads an NGO called the Federation of Consumer Associations.

India introduced a Consumer Protection Act in 1986, and currently has 35 state redressal commissions and 604 district commissions apart from the apex national commission in Delhi.

The country’s consumer rights movement may be largely invisible, but not because it isn’t vibrant, activists argue.

Filing a case costs Rs 100 if the compensation sought is up to Rs 1 lakh, but the application fees can be as high as Rs 500 for higher damages sought.

One of the most comprehensive studies on consumer rights patterns in India, by two Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professors earlier this year, revealed that in some states, such as Bengal, only three complaints have been filed per 1,000 consumers.

Retired government employee C.P. Rai says that for poor people, one of the main deterrents against filing complaints could be the application fee. “Why should the complainant have to pay a fee at all,” wonders the 70-year-old who retired from the Union health ministry in 1997. He has now written to the ministry of consumer affairs asking it to scrap the fee.

When Rai’s fingers clatter against the keys of his three-decade-old Godrej typewriter, it often portends potential trouble for government agencies or private companies that stand accused of hoodwinking or cheating customers.

Rai is occupied these days devising his latest strategy to challenge Delhi’s bus system that he says quietly cheats people. “I have been battling the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for nine years now. Buses are the common man's mode of transport and appear cheap. But quietly, they have been looting you and me,” he says, his eyes flashing but his voice calm as he explains.

The Delhi government’s gazette notification says bus passengers must be charged according to the distance they travel. But the fare charged by the DTC is often independent of the exact bus stop where the passenger boarded.

Only a handful of bus stops along the route are counted as “starting points” for fare calculation — a fact accepted by the DTC in its official documents. So, a passenger who boards the bus from a stop in between two “starting points” is charged from the previous starting point and ends up paying more than he ought to, Rai explains.

The district consumer court upheld his appeal but the state consumer court — approached by the DTC — overturned that decision.

“The DTC may have won the last round of our battle, but I am not giving up,” says Rai.

Rai travels every day from his East Delhi home to the lawns behind New Delhi’s Nirman Bhavan, which houses the health ministry, where dozens of ordinary government employees hand him their petitions. To others, he doles out advice, seated under a tree.

“Just write down in detail how you have been cheated. Write down what you feel. I need to know all details of the case if I have to draft a proper complaint,” he tells a waiting section officer of the human resource development ministry.

Not all of India’s warriors for consumer rights work full time on cases fighting legal battles, though.

Some like commerce professor Sri Ram Khanna at the Delhi School of Economics have made “activism” a part of their work.

Khanna, 55, started the Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (Voice) 25 years ago, when customer complaints were largely restricted to government bodies.

“As the volume of consumer activity increases, as it is today, complaints too have risen. Again, as purchasing increases in the future, so too may complaints,” explains Khanna, when asked whether a rise in absolute volume of complaints can be attributed simply to greater flouting of rules by companies.

Khanna has successfully managed to introduce consumer rights into the curriculum at Delhi University, to which DSE is affiliated. He says he drew inspiration from the American consumer rights movement in the 1970s.

“Politicians, I thought, would not take up general concerns of people. They would not, by themselves, increase accountability. I saw that in the US, the consumer rights movement played a key role in making companies more accountable,” he says.

Professor Bupinder Zutshi, one of the authors of the JNU study, squeezes in consumer awareness programmes in between research into customer behaviour patterns.

Consumer Voice, an online magazine for consumer awareness, conducts comparative tests between different brands of the same product, rated on the basis of consumer satisfaction. The magazine then reports on the findings.

Its latest edition reveals findings of its tests on candle water filters, broadband services and fairness creams. Earlier studies include comparative tests ranging from digital cameras and mobile phones to chocolates, honey, butter and ketchup.

“We may not be very visible, but it is not true that the consumer rights movement isn’t active in India. Most people only think about consumer rights redress mechanisms when they suffer,” Banerjee says.

The perception of a tardy legal system, where seemingly simple cases take years to settle, deter people from approaching consumer courts, she says.

“That’s the challenge for us: to convince consumers that despite all the apparent hurdles, they must fight,” she says. “And win.”