Hunt for uncertified toys continues; BIS conducts 100 search operations

• According to a written reply by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs safety of toys is under compulsory BIS certification from January 1, 2021 as per the Toys (Quality Control) Order.
• Under the BIS Product Certification scheme, a licence is granted to manufacturing units to use the Standard Mark on the product.

In order to curb the sale of non-ISI certified toys and to ensure implementation of the Toys Quality Control Order, 100 search and seizure operations were carried out in the years 2021-22 and 2022-23.

During the search and seizure operations conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a quantity of 9,565 and 30,229 was seized during the years 2021-22 and 2022-23 (up to January 25, 2023), respectively.

According to a written reply by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in Rajya Sabha on Friday, safety of toys is under compulsory BIS certification from January 1, 2021 as per the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under Section 16 of the BIS Act, 2016.

Accordingly, it has been compulsory for toys to conform to the corresponding Indian Standards for Safety of Toys and to bear Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) Standard Mark under a licence from BIS as per Scheme-I of Schedule -II of BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.

As per this Quality Control Order, read with Section 17 of the BIS Act, 2016, no person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any toys without the ISI mark, said the reply.

Under the BIS Product Certification scheme, a licence is granted to manufacturing units to use the Standard Mark on the product as per the relevant Indian Standards.

Accordingly, toy manufacturing units including foreign manufacturing units exporting toys to India are required to obtain a BIS licence for the safety of toys, said the Ministry's reply.

The Ministry said that BIS has granted 1,037 licences to domestic units and 30 licences to foreign toy manufacturing units.

As part of its product certification, BIS also conducts factory and market surveillance under which samples of ISI marked toys are drawn from the factories and market and tested in labs according to the Indian Standard, to ensure that ISI marked toys available to consumers are safe and conforming to prescribed standards.