March 15 is World Consumer Rights Day

Nagaland, in unison with the rest of the world, shall celebrate the World Consumer Rights Day on 15th March’2016. The World Consumer Rights Day is an occasion of solidarity among consumers for promotion of the rights of consumers and to ensure that consumers are protected from unscrupulous traders and their consumer grievances  are  redressed. The theme for  the  World  Consumer  Rights  Day  2016  is – “Antibiotics off the menu”. It is a campaign to stop the sale of meat raised with the use of antibiotics important to human medicine.   Antibiotic resistance is driven by over use of antibiotics. About half of the antibiotics produced globally are used in agriculture to promote faster growth and to prevent diseases rather than treat diseases. The use of antibiotics in agriculture is due to increase by two thirds by 2030, from 63,200 tons in 2010, to 105,600 tons in 2030. Antibiotics have been hailed as one of the greatest medical discoveries of the 20th century when Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin in 1928. Deadly diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid fever and meningitis have been cured by antibiotics. However,  the same life-saving drugs that are prescribed to treat infections and diseases in humans are also used to fatten the animals that supply the chicken, beef and pork that are consumed every day by humans. But humans would bear the cost of consuming cheap meat in the long run.  

Studies showed that animals that had the drugs in their feed put on more weight in lesser time than animals on a traditional diet. Pigs that got an antibiotic were shown to need 10 to 15 percent less feed to reach the same weight as pigs on regular diets. Therefore, large-scale meat production requires antibiotics. Its use in farming is threatening to make some  common ailments untreatable as the indiscriminate use of antibiotics  breeds antibiotic – resistance to life-saving drugs, due to which common infections and minor injuries may once again kill.   Routine use of antibiotics renders antibiotics powerless against deadly infections caused by bacteria. Drug resistant bacteria in animals inevitably spread to humans. Every year, 2 million people in the US get infections that are resistant to antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people die as a result. Studies suggest that eliminating the regular use of antibiotics on farms could have a dramatic, almost instantaneous, effect on animal and human health.   Consumers therefore have an important role to play in persuading food companies and butchers to make the changes that are needed to stop the global public health threat for prudent use of antibiotics and protect the drugs for the future. The Legal Metrology & Consumer Protection Department enforces the Legal Metrology Act as well as the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 to enforce the sale of packaged commodities such as food products with mandatory declarations on the packages such as the name and address of the manufacturer or packer or importer, the month and year of packaging or import, etc. and defaulters are prosecuted under the Legal Metrology Act and Rules. Bizo M. Kuotsu Joint Controller & HoD Legal Metrology & Consumer Protection, Nagaland Kohima