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The overall objective of the Consumer Welfare Fund(CWF) is to provide financial assistance to promote and protect the welfare of the consumers and strengthen the consumer movement in the country(( Section II, Consumer Welfare Fund Guidelines, 2019)). There are certain rules in place which govern the use of the CWF. Some of them are(( Section III, Consumer Welfare Fund Guidelines, 2019)):
- Consumer awareness projects with wide coverage and adopting best international practices will receive priority for funding from CWF.
- The Government will focus on rural and disadvantaged consumers and schemes to protect them when using the CWF. For this, projects relating to rural consumers and their empowerment(( Section IV, Consumer Welfare Fund Guidelines, 2019)), and such organizations that work for rural consumers (which also have large participation of women and socially marginalized groups)(( Section V, Consumer Welfare Fund Guidelines, 2019)), will receive special focus.
- The CWF is also to be disbursed among the States and Union Territories, to create regional Consumer Welfare Funds, to fund welfare activities.
- There is a marked effort towards contributing to the CWF through the corporate social responsibility funds that are earmarked by companies.
- Innovative projects for consumer awareness and education, setting up training and research facilities for consumer education, projects relating to the rural consumer empowerment, Consumer Clubs in schools/colleges/Universities, setting up of Consumer Guidance Bureau at the State/ regional level for counselling and guidance, product testing labs, creating Centres of Excellence in Universities, meeting expenses on advocacy and class action suits, etc. get priority.
Applying for financial aid under the CWF
Calls for proposals seeking financial aid from the Consumer Welfare Fund are online, twice a year usually in the months of January & July. The appropriate notice and format of inviting proposals will be issued and published on the Consumer Department website. You can also download the application form for grants from Consumer Welfare Fund from the Consumer Department website(( Section VIII, Consumer Welfare Fund Guidelines, 2019)).
However, the Appraisal Committee can reject an application, for reasons including not meeting the eligibility criteria, incomplete forms trying to receive funds for the same venture through multiple Government forums, etc(( Department of Consumer Affairs, Consumer Welfare Guidelines, https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/sites/default/files/file-uploads/guidlines-2014/CWF%20Guidelines%202014.pdf. )).
