A toy (safety) story

Representational image. (Photo: Yuri Shirota via Unsplash)

If before buying a carton of milk, you check for the expiry date, it’s high time you checked for the ISI mark issued by the national standards body before buying a toy. Since January 1, 2021, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has banned the manufacturing, storing and sale of non-BIS certified toys in India. The violators will attract a penalty of two years jail or a fine of Rs 2 lakh for the first offence and a fine of Rs 5 lakh, at least, for subsequent offences.

BIS teams have been conducting raids on toy stores in malls and at airports across the country to confiscate non-BIS certified toys, both Indian-made as well as exported. This is in accordance with the Toys (Quality Control) Order, notified by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which lists seven Indian standards covering a wide gamut of toy-safety issues that manufacturers must comply with. These Indian Standards are aligned with the existing International Standards for toy safety which is the Standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission.

“The responsibility is on the manufacturers to adhere to the BIS quality standards,” says Raghvendra Singh, director at Aleph Accreditation & Testing Centre Pvt. Ltd, a single-window operator for all product regulatory compliance including toys. Since 2021, they have applied for the BIS quality mark for about 60-70 toy manufacturers from outside India and about 150 Indian toy manufacturers. Since then, “14 Indian toy manufacturers have received the BIS certification,” he says.

According to Singh, the toys fall into two types: non-electrical toys which are ordinary toys and don't have any function dependent on electricity and the electrical toys which have, at least, one function dependent on electricity. There are other safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties, flammability requirements, chemical hazards, and even the finish of the toys for sharp edges cause injuries. “Toys given to children as young as one-month-old like teethers come under the ambit of safety regulations specific for the age group,” he says. “BIS certification has been made mandatory for toys made for children up to the age of 14 years.”

So far, unsafe toys have been sold unhindered even in the best toy stores. Toys from some countries where manufacturing standards are low are also in the market. Also, the Indian toy industry has many small producers who operate from across the country unchecked. Hazardous materials, small parts, and poorly constructed toys are common. Some materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are used in toys to make them soft and pliable, contain harmful chemicals like phthalates, lead and cadmium. Phthalates are not chemically bound to PVC and are most likely ingested by children. “Young children have issues after ingesting such chemicals and parents, especially the ones from the lower income strata, have no idea why their child has got sick,” Singh says.

“The commonest safety issue comes from ingestion of small parts in toys,” says pediatric intensivist Dr Geethanjali Ramachandra. “Button cells are especially dangerous. I have seen a child coming in for emergency treatment after swallowing a pin that was used to affix paper on the noticeboard. It had lodged into the windpipe.”

Small-scale toy manufacturers are on the wait and watch mode right now. Many refused to talk about it. One toy manufacturer, who didn’t wish to be named, said that even though toys made by artisans are now not under consideration, there is a debate on it. “There isn’t much support for artisans anyway,” she says. “I really don’t know what will happen.” Similarly, other toy manufacturers are unclear about the BIC quality mark. Some say they have a six-month window for implication whereas some complain that it’s too drastic.

“When we started in 2009, a lot of manufacturers could voluntarily apply for the certification,” Singh says. “But now it is compulsory. There will be accountability for sure.”

Considering how big the Indian toys market is — it reached a value of $1.35 billion in 2021 — accountability and regulations should be airtight. According to experts, parents can lodge a complaint against the manufacturer and the seller with the local office of BIS or its website (bis.gov.in) if the toy they bought has no BIS quality mark. Even if it has the ISI mark but is not of the standard, parents can still lodge a complaint and BIS can recall the product, ask the manufacturer to replace the defective product or else refund the money. If there has been an injury, parents can demand compensation for the injury suffered by the child as well the mental anguish they have been through.