Hallmarking scheme was launched on a voluntary basis by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in April 2000 and revised subsequently in January 2006. Under the scheme, a BIS Certificate jeweller gets his jewellery assayed and hallmarked by any BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centre. But lesser number of such centres with their uneven distribution in the country deprives majority of people of the benefits of hallmarking and assaying with the result that people continue to be subjected to the usual deception and cheating by jewellers as has been from the ages. Mind you, this is at a time when consumers are protected by laws like the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and others.

On an average, annual consumption of gold in India is about 550 tonnes, which is used as sacramental ornaments, investments and hedging funds against usual market driven risk factors.

Following over 156 public awareness programmes and campaign by the BIS during the last three years in 18 states, 3,646 jewellers have opted for gold and 255 jewellers for silver hallmarking scheme. Added to this, the Government's programme to make assaying and hallmarking of silver and gold jewellery mandatory from January 1, 2008 has complicated the situation, unless the Government intensifies public awareness programmes across the country to educate the people about the benefits of gold and silver hallmarking.

During the current 11th Five Year Plan, which has commenced with effect from April 1, 2007, the Government in the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has launched a novel scheme to provide subsidy of 15 per cent or Rs.15 lakhs to entrepreneurs towards the input costs of plant and machinery for setting up of assaying and hallmarking agency, which is 30 per cent subject to a maximum of Rs.30 lakhs per unit for states in the North East Region. This scheme needs to be extended to rural India at the state and district levels to benefit all people equally and alike lest the scheme should be coming a cropper!

Meanwhile, official sources in the Union Department of Consumer Affairs have indicated that the Government is seized of the problem of standardizing the quality of gold and silver products and accordingly, addressing the hallmarking scheme through an amendment to the BIS Act, 1986. In addition, a draft Bureau of Indian Standards (Hallmarking of Precious Metal Articles) Regulations, 2007 under the BIS Act has been formulated after considering well thought out views of several stakeholders, which is in process in the BIS.

Simultaneously, the Centre in the Department of Consumer Affairs has taken up an exercise to amend comprehensively the BIS Act, 1986, to prevent misuse of ISI mark on spurious products in the country. Accordingly, deterrent action would be taken against dealers for storing and selling spuriously ISI marked products over and above the existing provision for action against any person having used the ISI mark on the product without obtaining a licence. Another important amendment would include compounding the offence committed by the offender and increasing the fine from the existing Rs.50, 000 to Rs.500, 000 with a minimum of Rs.50, 000.

BIS has conducted 446 raids all over the country to check spurious ISI marking during the last two years, which is too little in view of the large size of the country. More such raids need to be taken to ensure stringent quality control of products. BIS has taken further action to strengthen its enforcement activity since 2006 onward by recruiting two outsourced agencies in eight major locations at National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Jaipur as a pilot projects to supplement its efforts to nab fake ISI marking. These agencies help BIS with information about the manufacturers, misusing ISI mark without obtaining lincence from the BIS.

Buoyed by the success of the pilot projects in eight mega cities, the Centre has initiated action to appoint such agencies in all the states to help BIS greatly in gathering information about the offenders in order to rid the people of India of the menace of the use of spurious goods. A process is also afoot to bring more and more food products, medicines, infrastructural materials and allied products under the category of mandatory certifications of the BIS.

It was the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who envisioned information technology revolution, consumer protection and a free market economy for a vibrant modern globalised India in 1985. But the nation has miles to go before a country-wide public awareness about consumer rights catches up and our people are protected against cheating by unscrupulous traders, manufacturers and service providers!

The steps taken so far are too little to be of significance as the impact is negligible!#