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FEDCOT THROUGH THE YEARS

FEDCOT for which foundation was laid by Thiru. R.R.Thalavai, a great freedom fighter in 1990, was revitalised subsequently in a crucial meeting held in Meenakshi Mission Hospital, Madurai.

Started with just 18 consumer councils, it went all out to encompass smaller units. FEDCOT has changed by leaps and bounds and gained popularity. More than 350 member councils have entered in its fold and its range includes the Union Territory of Pondicherry also.

In December 1991 an important Executive Committee meeting was held. The meeting decided to conduct regional training camps in three places in Tamil Nadu wirite like. Indicated below are the year-wise progress registered by FEDCOT.

1992

The first regional training session was conducted in L.R.S.A. at Chengalpattu. It focused on consumer awareness and the methods to handle complaints.

May

The second regional training was conducted in Gandhigram Rural University at Gandhigram, Dindigul District.

June

The third regional training was conducted in Chettipalayam, Coimbatore. Ford Foundation representative Hon�ble Maya Dharuwala participated in it as a special guest and promised financial help for the growth of FEDCOT. Though Tamil Nadu was not their target state, she made efforts to increase the role of women in consumer movement.

July

A training programme was organised in Paramakudi for the benefit of consumer leaders who could not participate in the first three training sessions.

September

The first state-level conference was held in St. Joseph�s College, Tiruchirapalli. About 2,500 delegates from different parts of Tamil Nadu participated in the delibrations. Seminars were conducted in different halls on various topics. M. Viswanathan, honourable Minister for Consumer Protection Government of Tamil Nadu presided over the conference and praised the activities of FEDCOT. FEDCOT grew into a people�s movement as it concentrated on consumer problems.

Mr. A.K. Venkatasubramanian, State Food Secretary and Mr. A.M. Swaminathan, Special Commissioner, Government of Tamil Nadu participated in the conference. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, Retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, graced the event and gave a special address. It was a historical event in the annals of consumer movement and it was a turning point for FEDCOT too and there was no looking back for the organisation since then.

1993

Consumer protection training for women was organised in Kancheepuram, Madurai, Pudukkottai and Nagapattinam.

Awareness programme about Public Distribution System (PDS) was organised for members. FEDCOT and Life Insurance Corporation together had training programmes to reform public distribution system video. On an experimental basis model training sessions were conducted. LIC brought out a small publication with the title, �Awareness brings benefit�.

Training in standards, quality and quality determination was organised in Chennai in September and October. This helped the members to go for legal battles in consumer courts. Mr. D. Ragupathi, Deputy Director – General from Quality Control Organisation, played a major role in planning and executing the training programme.

The executive committee meeting held in December at Rajapalayam decided to have women representatives from each district. It was decided to call women as special invitees from 1 April 1994 to 31 March 1995.

FEDCOT started publishing FEDCOT Seithigal monthly with Mr. Albert Fernando as Editor.

1994

Consumer protection training was conducted for teachers of the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. The University had introduced consumer protection as a new subject in the curriculum.

For 125 members of Coimbatore District Literacy Movement, consumer awareness training camp was organised in March.

The year saw a spectacular State conference for women. The second State conference of FEDCOT was held in Madurai from 15 to 18 February. About 2,500 representatives from different parts of Tamil Nadu and other States attended the conference. The unique feature of the event was, about 13,600 college and school students (from women�s colleges) came in peaceful procession to the conference venue, without disturbing vehicular traffic en route. Students filled the streets carrying banners and placards and consumers proclaiming consumer rights.

Justice V. Balakrishnan Eradi, President, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission the apex body of the three tier redressal set-up and Sri. Sathinayar, Joint Secretary of the Central Food Distribution Ministry of Consumer Protection and Public Distribution were special guests at the conference. Seminars were conducted on topics like �Women and public distribution� �Rural women and their duties�, etc. On all the four days conference news bulletin was published daily with the help of Dinamalar daily.

FEDCOT became an executive committee member of the scheme, �Powerful Rural Consumer in Asia�, under the aegis of International Organisation of Consumer Unions (IOCU) Now Consumer International (or CI in short) Regional Office, Asia and Pacific (ROAP). Thanks to the General Secretary, Mr.Henry Tiphagne, FEDCOT members visited countries like Malaysia and Singapore and exchanged their views and experiences with consumer groups. FEDCOT members learnt that Malaysian consumer organisations were part of the International Consumer Forum also.

Consumer International which was keenly watching FEDCOT activities, especially in rural areas, provided membership status to FEDCOT in September 1994. The Chairman and General Secretary of FEDCOT participated in the 14 All-World Consumer International Conference held in Paris. FEDCOT�s historic Women�s Conference video was screened in Paris conference which was greeted with acclamation.

Against unfair and restricted trade practices, a movement was organised throughout the State. Some trade unions came forward to correct their mistakes. Against some organisations legal cases were filed in the consumer disputes redressal forums. FEDCOT won several cases and lost a few on technical grounds. FEDCOT won the case against Dinamalar against its unfair trade practice after a long legal battle in the Madurai District Forum but lost it in the State Commission.

With the financial help from Ford Foundation the building of office complex was taken up. Women trainers were selected and they were given training.

Special training camps were conducted region-wise for women. In backward districts and northern districts, special consumer awareness camps were conducted to provide impetus for consumer movement. Officials of National Service Scheme in Tamil Nadu universities were given training in consumer awareness on two occasions.

1995

To eliminate unfair trade practices legal education training was arranged. Special training camps for women were arranged in eight places.

Seminars on health and hygiene and proper perspective of healthy life was conducted with the help of Asian Community Health Action Network (ACHAN) and Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAU).

To effect combined procurement and distribution for joint consumer action a training camp was conducted in Gandhigram in co-operation with the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat.

A three-stage training in healthy life was conducted for young leaders of consumer movement. The training also focused on the propaganda relating to medical problems.

Consumer International selected �UN Guidelines on consumer Protection� as its theme for the World Consumer Rights Day 1995.

World Consumer Day kit included one book on FEDCOT which was prepared by Mr. R. Desikan FEDCOT Chairman and the Executive Trustee of GAG Mr. Sriram Panchu.

In 18 districts of Tamil Nadu, FEDCOT convened district-level conferences to highlight the tenth anniversary of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection.

A special committee on plain language communication (plancom) was formed in FEDCOT. This was the result of Chairman�s visit to the UK. The purpose of �plancom� was to simplify the language found in Agreement papers and help the people who enter into agreement. Plancom conducted 3 workshops, of which two were at Madras and one at Coimbatore.

As a result of FEDCOT�s presentation at Alacrity Housing Limited with Mr. Martin Cutts, they had come forward to rewrite their documents on a consultancy basis.

Health-related activities

FEDCOT made efforts to establish contact between FEDCOT and the Voluntary Health Association of India, New Delhi. Dr. Mira Shiva, the Head of the Policy Unit of VHAI, helped FEDCOT get the support of organisations like the Asian Community Health Action Network (ACHAN) and PREPARE, both of them from Chennai.

A two-day consultation was organised in Madras by FEDCOT jointly with VHAI, ACHAN and PREPARE on 18 and 19 February 1995.

FEDCOT News Bulletin which had been temporarily suspended was revived from August 1995 because of the great efforts Mr.R. Desikan, Chairman and Mr. Henry Tiphagne, General Secretary, and Mr. Xavier, Training Director. FEDCOT Sethigal was on its foot again and Mr.K.Muthiah of Madurai became the Execuitve Editor of it.

1996

�HIVOS� and �Action Aid� (Financial organisations) started functioning jointly with FEDCOT. Prof. Xavier started functioning as full-time training director. In the directorate of training, planning assistants were appointed. Training for new members and budding consumer activists was conducted in this period.

FEDCOT played a definite role in bringing medical profession under consumer protection laws.

Public interest litigations were filed in Supreme Court in this period. For example under Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and Integrated Rural Development Programmes, large scale corruption took place in the construction of cremation sheds, a big scandal popularly known as �Cremation shed scam�. On the basis of information received from Madurai Consumer Council a case was filed.

In order to draw the attention of the Government over the problems of power consumers FEDCOT members undertook a token dharna at the district head quarters in the State by covering their eyes with black cloth.

On the eve of elections for the State Assembly, propaganda meetings, voters awareness campaign, �All candidates on the same daise� meetings were conducted to ensure free, fair and honest election.

1997

FEDCOT won the Central Government�s prestigious Best Consumer Council Award for 1994. A cash prize of Rs. 50,000 was also given to FEDCOT. This amount is kept in permanent reserve fund and the interest from it is utilised for giving the Best Member Council Award.

Mrs. Lucy Xavier of Dindigul council received the first National Award for Women in 1994 for her good work.

National award for young consumer leader was awarded to M.Kavitha of Madras Consumer Council.

The General Secretary participated in the Sixth International Conference on consumer acts held at Kolalampur, Malaysia on 5,6,7 May 1997.

Prof. Srinivasa Narayanaswamy, Treasurer, FEDCOT, was elected to the syndicate of CCC.

The third State Conference was conducted in Chennai on 14 to 16 March 1997. The following ten books were released in the conference :

• Drinking Water and Water�Dorne Diseases
• Domestic Electrical Appliances Protection
• Consumer Guide
• Children are also Consumers
• Indirect Effects of Advertisements
• What is Guarantee?
• Patents and Their Legal Rights
• Consumer Movement and Trade Practices
• Awareness Brings Profit
• Consumer Movement, Government and UNO

The following new office bearers were appointed for the period 1997 to 2000.

• Prof. Srinivasa Narayanaswamy � Chairman
• Mr. K. Kadiresan – Vice Chairman
• Prof. S. Peer Mohammed – Vice Chairman
• Dr. Pirai Arivazahan – General Secretary
• Mr. A. Sankar – Joint Secretary
• Mr. M. Nizamudeen – Joint Secretary
• Prof. P. Duraisingam – Treasurer

Former Chairman Mr. R. Desikan and former General Secretary Mr. Henry Tiphagne participated in the International Consumer Conference conducted in Santiago in Chile.

A publication called �Lo�Y�o Ft� (Consumer Spring) was launched. Mr. A Sankar of Tirunelveli was nominated as its Executive Editor.

1998

A State-level seminar on Public Distribution � Food Security and Social Welfare was organised in Chennai. The concern of FEDCOT in public distribution was indicated by this seminar.

Mr. K. Kadiresan the Vice Chairman of FEDCOT passed away. It was a great loss to FEDCOT.

Training in right to get information was conducted in Madurai for women co-ordinators.

Training was organised for the consumer cultural group. Consumer propaganda songs were newly written and made popular.

Chairman Prof. Srinivasa Narayanaswamy participated in the international seminar on �Asian Economic Crisis�. This seminar in Penang, Malaysia, discussed the impact of globalisation and trade liberalisation on the economies of the Asian countries and the measures to overcome them.

A hunger strike was organised in Chennai by FEDCOT to appeal to the Government to fill the vacancies in consumer redressal forums, to regulate hospital management and the right to information. Besides FEDCOT office-bearers, women participated in large number in the hunger strike.

FEDCOT was registered under Income-Tax Act in this period. It also got Income-tax exemption.