Quality regulator has seized more than 40,000 toys since 2021: Minister

Toys have to get the Bureau of Indian Standards' certification and meet its safety norms

More than 40,000 toys were seized in India in the last three years for flouting safety and quality standards set by a state institute, the government told Parliament.

Toys have to get the Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) certification and meet its safety norms. As many as 114 search operations were carried out in the last 27 months to seize unsafe or poor quality toys, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, minister of state for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

A total of 41,489 toys have been seized since 2021 in the BIS operations. In January, nationwide raids on retail stores confiscated around 18,600 non-BIS certified toys. Hamleys, WH Smith, Archies, Kids Zone and Cocoart stores were among firms searched for such toys.

According to a government rule, no person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any toys without the ISI mark.

Under the BIS product certification scheme, licence is granted to manufacturing units to use the standard mark on the product as per the relevant Indian standards. If found violating the provisions, toy manufactures can attract a penalty of up to two year’s jail or with fine of at least Rs 2 lakh for the first offence and a fine of at least Rs 5 lakh for the second and subsequent offences.

Accordingly, toy manufacturing units including foreign manufacturing units exporting toys to India are required to obtain a BIS licence for safety of toys.

BIS said in a statement it conducts factory and market surveillance under which samples of Indian Standards Institute-marked toys are drawn from factories and markets and tested in labs.