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Two slightly over-fed, suited, booted young men with gelled hair and a slick smile on their faces are led into a room where the ‘underworld don’ is seated. Blissfully unaware of the identity of the don, the two men walk straight into the trap. "So you are the guys from the bank who have been calling me and pressuring me to take a loan?" asks the don. The smile on his face is deceptive. "Yes, oh yes", say the suited men in unison, beaming. "Finally we have managed to get you, sir. We want to offer you a loan", they continue. The don suggests that they drink some sharbath before they start the discussion. As the happy duo gulp down the drink, the don signals to his men and the next shot shows the two men stripped to their underwears and being beaten black and blue. In the end, the two swear that they will never ever make telemarketing calls to the don. The movie is Traffic Signal and if you are watching it at a theatre, you are sure to hear a very hearty laughter all around at this juncture. It’s obvious that the audience is happy that at least in reel life, if not in real life, someone is teaching the telemarketers a lesson. Consumers do want an immediate stop to telemarketing calls. And they want stringent action that would stop telemarketers in their tracks and force those who make such calls to pay a steep compensation to consumers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which sometime ago had issued a very comprehensive consultation paper on the subject, came up with a draft regulation last month, to set up a National Do Not Call Registry. Called the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007, TRAI has proposed the setting up of a National Do not Call Registry with the help of the National Informatics Centre. It has also come up with the idea that every telemarketer has to be registered with the Department of Telecommunication. TRAIhopes that it would get enough cooperation from the RBI and the Indian Banks Association in ensuring that the existing telemarketers comply with this. As per TRAI ‘s proposal, telemarketers would submit online their calling list to the National Do Not Call Registry. At the registry, this list will get screened and all those whose numbers are on the "Do not call" list will be eliminated and the revised list sent back to the telemarketer online. In case a telemarketer calls a number on the "Do not call" list, the telecom service provider is empowered to charge from the telemarketer as penalty a tariff that is much higher than the normal tariff. For third violation, the telecom service provider can disconnect the telemarketer’s connection. In fact a telemarketer has to give an undertaking that he will not make unsolicited calls to numbers that are on the Do Not Call Registry. We need a comprehensive law that puts a stop to unsolicited calls and also provides for deterrent financial penalties in case of violation. In the US, telemarketers who violate the law have to pay stiff penalties but also compensation to consumers. And this would be much higher if they happened to be senior citizens. In one of the first lawsuit filed under the "Do Not Call" law, a company called American Home Craft and its director were asked to pay $ 100,000 and $ 45,000 in civil penalties, $ 30,000 towards costs of investigating and prosecuting the case and $ 25,000 to the California residents who lodged the complaint about receiving telephone calls in violation of the Do Not Call Law. Interestingly, B.J.Panda,
a Member of Parliament, introduced in the Rajya Sabha last year a
private member’s Bill aimed at preventing unsolicited telephone
calls and protecting the privacy of consumers. And the Bill proposed
not just imposition of fines but also imprisonment for violators. The
government always blocks the passage of private members’ Bills but
such Bills serve the purpose of bringing to the notice of the
government the need for such laws. Hopefully, the government will do
what is needed urgently—bring in a comprehensive law to protect
consumers’ privacy.
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