Student consumer club members of a private school in Thoothukudi fought against a popular textile showroom in Tirunelveli which provided poor quality sarees to 50 teachers of their school for the annual day celebrations, by sending a letter to the showroom that they would move the consumer court for deficiency of service.
Within a day of their letter to the showroom, teachers of St. Aloysius school received a cheque for Rs 1.50 lakh and the showroom manager assured that they would take back their defective goods.
Speaking to DC over phone, club president R. Thangalakshmi said, “We heard from our teachers that they wore the sarees just for an hour for the annual day.
All of them were upset as their colourful sarees had patches of white and after a wash, the colour faded. As we had classes on consumer rights often at school, my friends and I wondered why we can’t take up this cause to get justice.”
This class 11 student and her friends immediately sent a strongly-worded letter to the textile showro-om. “We have now understood the advantages of the consumer protection Act. We will learn more and continue to fight against deficiency of service,” she added.
Teacher S. Jayanthi, consumer club coordinator, and principal J. Rajarega Mary, said their students have put into practice the lectures. “We are overwhelmed that our children had utilised the lessons and created an impact,” they said.
Ms Kalyani Rajaraman, who identified active student consumer clubs for a state-level competition, said, “I was surprised when I heard the story from these children. We should learn from these children how to be an alert consumer.”