The Supplies and Education ministries have been collaborating to include matter related  to consumer awareness in the school curriculum from the next academic sessiom.

The move is aimed at spreading awareness among the people about growing market malpractices in a bid to check them, the Supplies Ministry said.

Sales of products without proper labeling showing the batch number, expiry date and the ingredients used are rampant in the domestic market. Similarly, sales of unhygienic and adulterated food items and overcharging are common practices.

Market monitoring conducted by the concerned authorities has revealed that the most common offences are selling date expired products, adulteration and poor hygiene.

It is necessary to educate students about these illegal practices by including them in the curriculum so that they will avoid such products that are harmful to their health, the ministry said.

These topics will be taught to students from grade 4 to grade 10, said Supplies Secretary Prem Kumar Rai. “We have targeted making school children aware against using substandard products in particular,” Rai said.

The ministry has concluded that including the related matter in the regular curriculum will have a large impact on spreading consumer awareness. “When school children are educated, their parents and teachers will also benefit,” said Rai, adding that information will spread to even people living in rural areas.

The Supplies Ministry has intensified efforts to spread consumer awareness by taking the campaign to the country’s schools to support its market monitoring programme to control market malpractices. 

Meanwhile, the ministry has also moved to amend the existing Consumer Protection Act to give it more teeth. Rai said they planned to enforce government rules more strictly besides conducting awareness programmes to make market regulation more effective. 

In the first 11 months of this year, the Department of Supplies Management checked a total of 3,731 business firms. Among them, 1,086 firms were booked for not displaying their price lists, 1,042 for selling products lacking proper labels and 751 for selling date expired products. Many of these firms were found to be repeat offenders.