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The National Road Safety Council has announced that helmets of poor quality will be banned from June 2021 and manufacture and sale of such helmets will be a criminal offence.

In what they have stated as the “vaccine for head injuries” the association has stated that head injuries have been causing memory loss and death to a great extent among people . About 154000 people have died due to road accidents in 2019 of these 56000 travelled by two wheelers.

Of these 43600 did not wear helmet. We must have usually noticed hawkers selling different types of helmets on road sides. These are sold anywhere between rupees 200 to 300.

This sale has been causing can a concern because the helmets are of very poor quality. They also have fake BSI and ISI marks stamped on them.

To escape fine imposed by the traffic police, people purchase the poor quality helmets and wear them. In order to put an end to this malpractice, the road safety council has announced that selling helmets without BSI certificate will be considered a criminal offence from next June.

Two lakh helmets are sold in India every day but 40% of them are very poor in quality. In India over 70% ride two wheelers on the road. People prefer two wheelers for public transport especially nowadays due to the fear of Corona.

About 70% of head injuries can be prohibited by wearing helmets which means fatality to an extent of 37% can be brought dow.

The Indian road safety council has hence from June 1, 2021 banned sale of poor quality helmets and made selling and manufacture of such helmets a punishable offence.