INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD

Consumer protection is important, particularly in developing economies, for ensuring fairness, safety, and trust, where consumers become vulnerable due to information asymmetry and less awareness of legal safeguards. This study examines consumer awareness regarding consumer protection initiatives, the major problems faced while purchasing goods and availing services, and the resolution measures, with special reference to Kodumbu Panchayath. The data were collected through a structured interview schedule from 120 consumers identified through Multi-stage sampling. Data were analysed using MANOVA, one-way ANOVA, and the Kruskal–Walli’s test. The findings show significant variations in consumer awareness of protection mechanisms, product standards, and legislation based on gender, education, and occupation. Female respondents have higher awareness levels than males. The analysis of problems faced revealed that high price, low quality, and adulteration were among the most common serious concerns. The problems faced while purchasing by consumers differ significantly, including false weights, misleading ads, adulteration, and poor after-sales services across the 3 ward categories. About false weight, misleading ads, and adulteration, the selected consumers belonging to ward number 4 are facing those problems majorly, apart from other ward categories. With respect to the resolving mechanism, occupation-based differences were significant for changing shops and lodging complaints, while other measures had no significant variation. The study highlights the ongoing gap between the existence of consumer protection provisions and consumers’ practical awareness and usage. The findings call for the need for targeted consumer education programmes, simplified complaint procedures, and high local-level support to improve consumer welfare and enhance consumer rights.