In a blatant violation of the Supreme Court order, most motorcycle-makers continue to sell their vehicles without helmets.
The SC, in an order in June 2010, had made it compulsory for every motorcycle-seller to give a quality helmet, certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards, as ‘original equipment’.
“However, only a handful of them are following it,” says Mr Rajeev Kapoor of all India helmet manufacturers association. Also, even among those people who wear helmets, about 85 per cent use sub-standard quality ones, he adds.
Though a few players such as Yamaha and Honda are taking some steps towards enforcing the SC order through tie-ups with branded helmet-makers, most others continue to disregard it, complain the helmet-makers.
This is the key reason for the three times volume growth of unbranded helmets compared to the `500 crore organised helmet market in India, they add.
In fact, though the estimated demand for helmets is around 90 million pieces per annum, the total capacity of ISI helmets is not more than 10 million pieces.
“The market is flooded with sub-standard products so much so while there are 100 makers of ISI-approved helmets, there are thousands of manufacturers of non-ISI helmets,” laments Mr Kapoor who is also the MD of Steelbird brand of helmets.
There is no clarity or enforcement of government norms, branded helmet-makers are not willing to do any capacity addition, he says.
Even the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the representative of domestic auto industry, is not in favour of the SC order.
The industry body feels that the order would curtail buyers’ freedom to purchase a helmet of their choice from the open market.
Also, the SC verdict does not take into account buyers who already own two-wheelers and helmets and may be buying their second or third two-wheelers, it adds.