The Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has amended that maximum weight of helmet must be 1.2 kg instead of current 1.5 kg
India is the largest two wheeler market in the world and more than 70 percent of our citizens ride a two wheeler everyday, but most of them don’t use helmet and in two-wheeler it is the only safety feature we have in case of an accident. Most people do not wear helmet because it is heavy and cheap helmets don’t have vents to keep your head cool.
The Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has amended that maximum weight of helmet must be 1.2 kg instead of current 1.5 kg. The manufacturers also need to provide vents like those on high end helmets to keep head cool. The ministry has also confirmed that all helmets must have BIS certification and if they don’t have it, then it won’t be allowed to be on sale in India.
The government has given six months for manufacturers to make necessary changes and this rule come to effect from January 15, 2019 onwards. In 2017, more than 15,000 people lost their lives in two-wheeler accidents across the country and if they had helmets, some of them might have survived the accident.
In India most of the people use below par helmets, so traffic police won’t fine them but they don’t realize that it is for their own safety that government implement such rules like wearing seat belts in car. This rule will certainly improve standards of helmet in India but some experts are not sure about reducing weight will help these helmets to protect rider during incident.
If they need to reduce helmet weight and still keep its structure intact, then the manufacturer will have to use expensive materials and it will increase price. So manufacturers might use below par materials to make them weigh less and meet these standards. Also government should have made it mandatory to wear full face helmets.
Another concern from lots of bikers who wear high end expensive helmets, which weighs more than 1.2 kg is whether they are allowed to wear it and will government allow these helmets to sell in India. We are expecting to get clarity from officials regarding this and we request all our readers to use good quality helmets and wear proper riding gears.