Government is planning to ban sale of non-ISI helmets after it received many complaints from customers and also from helmet manufacturers who are complying with BIS safety norm.
Once this policy comes into play, all helmet manufacturers are required to obtain certification from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Once it is certified, these manufacturers will then be able to sell ISI helmets only. Non-ISI helmets are usually sold roadside with a cheap price tag. This makes most of the Indian riders to go for such helmets as they are inexpensive. But these helmets don’t offer any kind of protection, which is needed in case of a crash.
Interestingly, a lot of retailers in the country sell ECE, SNELL and SHARP approved helmets which are superior than the ISI ones. It’s still unclear if this upcoming policy will include these helmets in the ‘no-selling’ list. We hope the government doesn’t ban these foreign certified helmets as they provide much more projection and comfort than the ISI ones.