Leading helmet manufacturer Studds Accessories Ltd estimates
that about 80 million or 8 crore people who ride motorcycles and scooters in
India everyday still need helmets as the current penetration (of helmet usage)
in the domestic two-wheeler market is at only 60%.
“There are about
21 crore two-wheelers plying on the roads in India. Out of that, only 60%
people wear helmets. More than 8 crore people still need helmets as the
necessary headgear for safety," Sidhartha Bhushan Khurana, managing
director, Studds Accessories told Mint in a phone interview.
Khurana’s
estimate does not account for the need for the pillion riders to wear helmets.
In order to put
a check on the increasing number of casualties involved in road accidents, the
government had issued a mandate for the two-wheeler riders to compulsorily wear
helmets a few years ago. This led to an exponential growth in the demand of
helmets over years as the two-wheeler market recorded sharp growth over the
last decade.
India’s two-wheeler market has grown
from 7.43 million units in FY2009 to its peak of 21.18 million units in FY2019
and later dropped to 17.41 million units in FY2020.
Even as the
government regulation continues to drive the demand for protective headgear,
Khurana said that currently about 30% of the two-wheeler helmet market is
unorganized, pointing at the non-ISI mark units that are considered unsafe in
case of an accident.
“We expect the
unorganized helmet category to open for the organized players as soon as the
authorities implement usage of safer headgears," Khurana said, adding that
such enforcement would open a huge opportunity in the market.
According to the
senior executive at India’s largest two-wheeler helmet manufacturer, besides
the sale of new and used bikes and scooters, the demand for helmets also comes
from the replacement market.
Sandip Ginodia , CEO
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