The world marks Consumer Rights Day tomorrow, but activists say there is nothing much celebrate.

In many countries, the principle needs of the consumer, like access to essential goods and services, fair choice, safety, information, representation, redress, consumer education and a healthy environment, still lack.

In Tanzania, a recent report by the Tanzania Consumer Advocacy society (TCAS) shows that over 90 per cent of the population is not aware of their consumer rights.

And elsewhere, the Consumer International (CI), reports that too many people around the world still lack access to necessities such as safe food basic financial services and a fair and safe market place.

 The principle needs of the consumer form the agenda of the consumer movement around the globe, following the 1986 meeting in New York of consumer organisations to discuss a policy to help advocate for consumer interests globally.

The policy was adopted in 2000 as the consumer manifesto for governments and consumer organisations worldwide. Its major aim was that the consumer gets a just and fair society. It also called for the improvement of the conditions in which consumers live.

The manifesto applauds economic growth only when this leads to the wellbeing of all consumers, and aims at redressing the imbalance in knowledge and power between suppliers and consumers. It has concrete economic and social ills to challenge and specific market abuses to change like the exploitative and destructive use of resources.

It draws attention to the need to change bad systems to eliminate their unpleasant symptoms. But that has not been the case in many countries, Tanzania included.

A significant number of consumers are at the mercy of service and product providers because the government pays lipservice, suggests consumer group TCAS, a member of CI.

 It urges the marketplace and public authorities to become more responsive to the needs of the consumer. 

Consumer rights are not abused only in developing countries but also in the developed world where many people are victims of marketplace abuses, lack of information to make informed choices, barriers to effective exercising of consumer rights and indifference or worse, on the part of some corporate and governmental power brokers.

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