The Ralph Nader of India: Ahmedabad textile mill manager Manubhai Shah

Shah: 'What's important is to right the wrong'It began as a one-man crusade. Today it is a growing movement. Where it may take its protagonist is immaterial: the idea is provocative enough to generate strong public opinion and momentum for continuing action. Recently, when 50-odd social scientists, lawyers, activists and academics got together in Ahmedabad to discuss the issues, they discovered they were in pursuit of not just stray ideas or experiences, but were contributing to a new ideology. For the man at the helm of the discussions, the ideology is basic: if people won't fight for some of the rights denied them, then he would set a precedent to show how it could be done.Manubhai Shah, 50, a small, wiry, bespectacled textile mill manager from Ahmedabad, could become the Ralph Nader of India. If his name isn't a household word yet, some of his activities at least have gained wide public notice. And if some of them have come to nothing, there are enough successes to show that causes can be fought and won. Shah is the man who is battling Indian Airlines against any increase in air-fares. He is the man who fights the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for denying policy-holders' claims.And it is he, with his Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), who has prevented the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) from raising bus-fares, who has shown how the Gujarat State Electricity Board (GSEB) can work better, who will sue a textile mill for using false trademarks, or force a groundnut oil manufacturer to withdraw false advertisements making tall claims. Absolute success in all cases may be elusive, but Shah has shown that a mixture of persuasion, litigation and relentless lobbying on all fronts can only further the ideology of consumerism that is his sole passion.Gore: Publicity but no momentumSudden Spurt:Consumerism is no newfangled cure to remedy the ills of producers: in other parts of the world, it's an established movement, often sponsored by state departments to check their own inefficiency, frequently wielded by independent crusaders as an instrument for public justice. In India, however, though its protagonists have been many, it has never flowered into a movement. Moreover, the crux of the consumerists doctrine has been blunted by basic questions: in a country where shortages of basic necessities are a way of life, whom is consumerism directed against?Yet not only are there specific target areas for the active consumerist - everyday public services and utilities, fraudulent claims by manufacturers, produce of spurious quality - there has also been in recent months, as if on remote control cue, a sudden spurt of consumer protection organisations. Smalltime groups have mushroomed in cities to protect community services. Large organisations have ambitious plans to set up a nationwide infrastructure. As one consumerist puts it, "It suddenly seems that consumerism is the newest fad for any ladies' meet or political parvenu to latch onto." Says Anil Gupta, a former Delhi lawyer who has renounced his practice to start the National Consumer Front in August last year: "You can't be a single crusader and hope to get things done.A family whose cornpelsation claim was denied by LIC: Gross negligence and inefficiencyWhat our organisation is going to fight for is basic necessities such as fair retailing in the Government's fairprice shops and Super Bazars and regular supply of coarse mill cloth through state outlets. Yes, we do rely on the Government's backing - I need the support of the Congress (I) Party, they have a big infrastructure of volunteers available. If the prime minister or Rajiv Gandhi support the movement, we welcome their support."Gupta, who claims that his organisation has already enrolled 17,000 committed members, and will soon start a consumer tabloid called Grahak Samuchur with aid from the Ministry of Civil Supplies, is but one of a chorus of groups flaunting the consumerists' bogey. But few have any tangible results to show.Innumerable Organisations: Curiously, there is no single directory of the number of consumer organisations in existence. Nor is there a record of their activities - a human rights group, in Lucknow for example, run by a group of lawyers is fighting the local municipality for a better sewage system. Another group in Hyderabad is invoking legislation to standardise prices for idle-soda in all local tea-stalls. In Bombay, lawyer Indira Jaisingh of the Forum Against Rape provides free legal aid to mill workers and trade unions. In Ahmedabad, Ela Bhatt, through her Self-Employed Women's Association, fights for the rights of pavement vendors. In Bombay, political leader Mrinal Gore leads morchas to ration shops to make stocks of sugar available to housewives at Diwali. For all that, attempts seem to be sporadic, unpublicised and without enough follow up to ensure momentum. In fact, of the countless organisations and consumerists in action, there is only one name that crops up time and again, and that is Manubhai Shah's. Even those who do not entirely approve of his approach, applaud him. Says Gupta: "He's certainly doing marvellous work, though his, style is highly individualistic and personalised."Misleading texite labels that Shah foughtHow a professional manager like Shah emerged as a champion of consumer ideology is neither because of chance nor sudden and freak inspiration. Having reached the apex of his professional career - he is now general manager of Arvind Mills, the largest of the seven textile units of the Lalbhai Group with a turnover of Rs 33 crore last year - and having settled his domestic responsibilities. Shah says "he was simply looking for something to do, something that would arouse him to dedicate his time and energy," I am 50, I used to say to myself, and at the top of my career. My children are settled, and I pay Rs 1, 500 income tax each month, though I started on a salary of Rs 150 back in 1952. With my legal and industrial background, my experience of large organisations, and my naturally assertive personality, I felt I could afford to stick my neck out. Consumer protection seemed the one area where my capabilities fitted exactly."First Move: In early 1978, Shah began to talk over the idea with Ramesh Bhatt, husband of the women's rights activist Ela Bhatt. who ran a successful column directed to consumers in a local paper, and who also headed a small, privately-funded organisation called the Foundation for Public Interest. "It's not enough to say what's wrong, I said to Bhatt, what's important is to right the wrong'," says Shah. Together they decided to take up their first issue: the rise in bus-fares by the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC). "Without throwing stones, without going to court, but by making a determined effort, we handled the issue successfully."What Shah did was to speak to MLAs, issue memoranda, and convince the state's transport minister that the hike could be challenged in court.A groundnut oil container: Exaggerated claimHaving won his first battle. Shah began to look for another major issue. At the same time, he set about building his organisation: together with Bhatt the CERC was registered as a public charitable trust in August 1978, with tax exemption for donors, and a few months later, recognition as a research organisation on the recommendation of the Indian Council for Social Science Research, the premier Government-sponsored body on the subject.The second major battle Shah took up was with the LIC. He had come upon a book on the working of the LIC by Prof B.R.S. Rao - an analytical research study from the period 1956 -1975 which gave countless appalling examples of the Corporation's inefficiency and gross negligence in repudiating death claims of policy-holders on ineffective and flimsy grounds, rarely, if ever, challenged. On the contrary, thousands of policy-holders seemed too numbed by the injustice to litigate against the behemoth, and many of the Corporation's two crore despairing holders had no recourse. Shah began by holding a seminar on LIC in Ahmedabad in 1978; further research revealed that from discrimination against women policyholders to discouragement of short-term insurances there was no aspect that did not deprive LIC's clients in one way or another. Shah illustrated his extensive research with real-life horror stories of young widows of textile mill workers who were on the point of starvation because of the LIC's ineptitude (India Today, September 16-30, 1978). Expansion: Because of instant media support he received and the public opinion he aroused, Shah's consumer research centre was deluged with requests from individuals to look into their grievances; offers of aid also poured in. Shah had begun with a small subsidy of donations, the bulk of which came from his agents, his bosses and their trusts. Between August 1978 and March 1979 he had managed to raise Rs 88,000 by appealing to various trust funds and private sector companies, and muster additional funds from individuals through his public campaigning. Today the CERC is worth over Rs 3.5 lakh, including a Ford Foundation grant, and subsidies from both the state and the Central Government.For all that, Shah's CERC remains basically a one-man organisation. True, colleagues like Ramesh Bhatt, who is the Centre's director, and lawyers like Bhaskar Tanna and Pravin Parekh, both trustees of the Centre, keep continual vigil and provide continuous follow-up action in the courts, but the overall direction and planning is controlled by Shah himself.One common criticism Shah hears is that his organisation should not receive financial sponsorship from the Government, if it is to fight government departments or public sector corporations. He doesn't agree with the accusation: "Sources for funding the Centre must remain as broad-based as possible. We take financial assistance in good faith, from individuals, private sector companies, departments of the Government as well as trusts - but strictly on our terms. Textile mills in Ahmedabad support us, but that doesn't mean we won't take issue with them if the need arises. Similarly, I don't see why our agitation against state corporations to redeem themselves can't in part be paid for by government funds. The only criterion is to help the consumer." In a recent instance, Shah has been rounding up textile manufacturers who fake labels like 'Sanforized' and 'Tebilized' - which are both registered trademarks for chemical processes owned by a company - by printing similar-sounding labels. "This campaign of mine has made me unpopular, you could say, among textile mills. Does that mean they should stop supporting me?"The goal of the CERC is to take up the gauntlet on as many fronts as possible, from national to local issues, so that a precedent is set and public awareness created.Detailed Probes: In another recent example of the kinds of cases Shah takes up, the CERC discovered that a popular brand of groundnut oil manufactured in Gujarat was advertised as being specially-enriched by Vitamin A. Since the oil in its natural state contains something like 1,080 lakh international units (IU) of Vitamin A per kilo, was it possible to additionally enrich it with more Vitamin A? Starting with this query. Shah used the services of a research scientist, Dr A.S. Divetia, to test samples of the brand. The various tests cost no more than Rs 600. But six months later, when it was clear that no more than 5.3 IU of Vitamin A per kilo - a very negligible amount - were being added by the manufacturer, the con-trick perpetrated upon thousands of consumers, was clear. Shah threatened to send a legal notice to the manufacturer, but it was not really necessary. The manufacturer, after a few meetings, came crawling to the CERC. Not only were the misleading advertisements withdrawn, but Shah insisted that corrective advertisements apologising to consumers appear over the same space and in the same places in the near future. In the meantime. Shah's research on edible oils came out in the form of bound pamphlet on sampling of common edible oils, testing methods, and possible adulterations.Scores of such bound pamphlets have become a trademark of CERC activities: records of legal wranglings with LIC, Gujarat state departments, the Indian Airlines case. document the research, case-studies and recommendations behind each of the campaigns launched. In some cases, such as the campaign against the inefficiency of the GSEB. The CERC with the aid of a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta and an architectural planner, has conducted village-to-village surveys that give details of losses incurred by consumers because of erratic power breakdowns. The research estimates that the GSEB's power cuts in 25 villages vary from two days a week for 10 hours a day to three days a week for 15 hours a day - which works out to 37.5 per cent of total daytime in the week. Power cuts and voltage fluctuations cause an average loss of Rs 4,500 a year per rural family. Rewinding of motors for pumps due to sudden breakdowns may cost a villager anywhere up to Rs 2,000. Another pamphlet assesses the financial malfunctioning of the GSEB and states that there are accounting irregularities to the tune of Rs 421.58 crore in the department according to the accountant general of the state.Consumerist Ethic: Despite the extensive research that he conducts with help from scholars, lawyers and other professional experts, distributing pamphlets bursting with documented revelations is the least of his job. The second stage lies in actually confronting the powers-that-be. As a result, the extensive research on the GSEB has been compressed into a hard-hitting memorandum submitted to the Rajadhyaksha Committee which is considering the functioning of the Indian power supply industry. "Inefficiency, extravagance and wastage in public sector units can only be brought to the surface if consumers and citizens participate in such government-appointed committees. It's the only way government can be made answerable to the people."It is precisely this principle of public accountability, whether by a private manufacturer hoodwinking buyers or a government department depriving a larger public, that is the crux of the consumerist ethic. Yet, for all his resolve and capacity for organisation, can Shah with a small band of activists achieve success on a larger scale? Shah himself is aware of the problem, made more acute by the fact that there is hardly a city or medium-sized town in India where consumer organisations of some kind or other do not already exist. In Bombay alone there are half-a-dozen, one over 50 years old. In Delhi there is the Government-subsidised Indian Federation of Consumer Organisations. Yet there are few who have persisted in championing causes over the years with appreciable success: The Pune-based Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat has fought rises in milk prices and the Consumer Guidance Society of India is pushing for amendments in food adulteration laws.Many of these groups lack not only organisation, but what is more important, a wider impact. However, when the CERC sued Indian Airlines in June this year over the increase in air-fares, the issue, though legally undecided and still pending in court, created enough reaction among the airlines 65 lakh passengers to ensure wide media coverage.Seminars: Many of Shah's crusades have this kind of effect, and Shah himself does not soft-pedal the importance of the media for his set-up. At the same time, he is aware that to consolidate a movement he requires not only support from the media - in fact the CERC is planning a special seminar next year to encourage journalists in consumer reporting - but from every group of professionals, from lawyers to social scientists to management experts.As for himself, he travels tirelessly to local 'clubs and associations in metro cities and small towns to carry on the crusade by talking to people, persuading lawyers to fight his battles for him, attending courts for hearings, knocking on bureaucratic doors for support, pleading before judges for interim relief in cases, canvassing for funds and drumming up media response. In Ahmedabad, the city where his odyssey began, textile magnates and trade unionists speak of him with equal proportions of admiration and awe but owe him their unequivocal support. Manubhai Shah's ethic is simple: he will leave no stone unturned or door unopened for aid for his centre-as long as its activities are not compromised and the ideology behind it established. The way he is going about it, consumerism may become more than a one-town success, and the CERC more than a one-man noise.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 26, 2013 15:13 IST--- ENDS ---

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The Ralph Nader of India: Ahmedabad textile mill manager Manubhai Shah

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