World Consumer’s Rights Day today

The World Consumer’s Rights Day 2008 will be observed across the world today. The theme of this year is based on anti-junk food message. Therefore, the Consumers International (CI) campaign is aimed to stop marketing of unhealthy food to children. About 22 million children suffer from obesity in the West. In Pakistan, the Consumer’s Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRC) has urged the government to launch a public awareness programme on harmful effects of junk food that are mostly being consumed by children and youth. The CRC is particularly concerned over the deceiving advertisements of harmful food in the electronic media that easily attract children of all ages. These foods are carcinogenic, therefore harmful to human body specially, children are reported to be at higher risk after consuming. However, children of lower income group families are the victims of junks that they consume in form of colour-coated ice and coloured sherbats and also the goodies fried in used oil, widely being sold on pavements and streets. The Secretary General, CRC said that we should save our children from being victim of these junk foods and ban these items as it has been already done in many developed countries. However, it is not only the children, in fact the whole society is under constant health threat as we consume vegetables washed with drain water and many other eatables that we use in our daily life, said the CRC official. Therefore, the issue needs to be resolved by launching proper awareness drive that will definitely help safeguarding human health.