An initiative was taken by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, to launch the Right to Repair portal for empowering the consumers, also introducing the NTH mobile application and new premises of the National Consumer Helpline Centre in Delhi, in December 2022. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also signed between the Consumer Affairs Department and IIT-Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. Besides, it also launched a capacity building programme of consumer commissions. The portal will now reduce the dependency of consumers on manufacturers in case their product fails to operate.
With this launch, India has joined countries such as the US and the UK, which offer this facility.
Benefits of the Portal
Under the framework of right to repair, it is mandatory for the manufacturers to share the manual of product details with customers in order to help consumers to either repair their products themselves or get them repaired by third parties. The consumers will not have to depend on the original manufacturers. It will also help harmonise the trade between the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), third-party buyers, and sellers, and would create new jobs. This initiative would reduce the vast electrical waste (e-waste) that is accumulated each year. It would boost business for small repair shops, which are more important part of local economies. Moreover, customers will shun from throwing away products that were expensive or difficult to repair originally from the manufacturer.
Earlier in 2022, the central government had formed a committee under the chairmanship of Nidhi Khare, additional secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, for developing a framework for the Right to Repair portal. The committee designed the portal and has given the consumers proprietary product control. The portal provides consolidated list of consumer care contact details of all major consumer products manufacturers. Now, consumers can search companies by name or consumer product by name. Also, all the public information related to their products, service, warranty, terms and conditions, etc., is also available on this portal. Customers can visit the links to the authorised service network of the brands third-party service providers. They can view the warranty period, prices of genuine spare parts, and consumables of respective brands.
The portal provides the consumers a platform for filing their grievances also. They can now have an accessible and convenient way to report the defective goods and receive compensation. Consumers can get in touch with lawyers and legal experts for getting legal counsel for their complaints.
This initiative would help achieve greater consumer awareness and greater service to consumers through 3Ts—technology, training, and transparency.
As per the Consumer Protection law, a complaint should be disposed of within three months (90 days) of its filing and 150 days if expert evidence is needed to be taken. Though the rate of complaints in the consumer commission has been around 89 per cent, there is still a backlog of 6.24 lakh cases, as on December 16. The minister suggested that if the pendency was more than 4,000 cases, additional branches of the commission should be followed to clear the backlog.
Products Covered Initially
In the first phase, the portal will cover electronic products, consumer durables, mobile phones, farming equipment, and automobiles, etc. With the help of the online assistance tool provided by the portal, the customers can modify and repair their products instead of seeking help from manufacturers, which troubles the customer with long waiting hours and unnecessary company policies.
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