More to toys than meets the eye

By Sutirtho Patranobis

NEW DELHI, MAY 30. This ``Toy Story'' is unlikely to have a happy ending. Worse, the toys in this story have all the ingredients to make your child sick -- PVC (poly vinyl chloride), arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. What's more, in the absence of proper checking and testing facilities, toys made of toxic material are fast finding easy entry into households.

Delhi has nearly 200 toy manufacturers, and by all accounts most of them are ignorant of toy standards prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Based in crowded clusters of Sadar Bazar, Seelampur, Kirti Nagar and Mayapuri, most of these units cater to the economically lower strata of society and market cheap toys. While some of the city's demand for toys is met by multinational corporations, some are imported from the U.S., China and Taiwan.

What is alarming is that no Government agency is monitoring the toys up for sale in the market. Even toys that are imported are not put through any tests.

``For toy manufacturers, PVC is cheap, easily available and has more colour options. Naturally, they use it,'' says Ms. Deepika Pawar of the NGO ``Toxic Links''. Moreover, PVC toy-makers often add softeners to make the product more flexible. When children innocently put soft toys like teethers into the mouth, they ingest these softeners which contain ``phthalates''. The phthalates can damage the kidney and the liver. High levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic, also present in the softeners, are equally dangerous too. ``Even simple licking or sucking such toys is harmful.''

Officials of BIS, which falls under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, say they are helpless when it comes to monitoring toys. ``Products manufactured in the country are divided into two categories. In the first, testing and securing BIS approval is mandatory. There is a stiff fine of Rs. 50,000 and/or imprisonment for one year for violators. Toys fall in the second, voluntary category -- which means the manufacturer is not bound to get his product approved.''

The BIS did publish three booklets specifying safety requirements for toys and tests needed to be carried out on them. But officials admit that no survey of toy-making units has been conducted. ``These units fall under the small-scale industry and it is impossible to monitor them. Another problem is that there is not a single laboratory in the country to check toys.''

The Toy Association of India president, Mr. Raj Kumar, says there is no doubt the industry is unorganised. ``Toys can be made anywhere by anyone. One does not need heavy machinery. You can make a toy out of anything. It is possible that material like recycled plastic is used for making toys.'' According to Mr. Kumar, surveys have been conducted abroad to check toxic levels in toys. ``Only a few cases of toxic toys were detected.'' He, however, stresses that there is need for a checking system. ``Not only for toys made here, but also for those that are imported."

The Association, Mr. Kumar adds, is working out, with BIS collaboration, a ``toy mark'' which should go a long way in fixing standards. Once ``toy mark'' comes through, playing with toys is likely to become less hazardous-- and this story might have a happy ending after all.

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