Bengaluru, October 18, 2016: TÃœV Rheinland India, a subsidiary of TÃœV Rheinland Group, Germany, a worldwide leader in Testing, Training, Inspection, Consulting & Certification, announced that it would provide its services in the area of toy testing and certification in India where it sees a huge opportunity.

Toys are critical tools for the development of children, but the importance of keeping children safe from hazards while they play cannot be over rated. Especially as new materials and manufacturing processes are constantly being developed by the manufacturers. This announcement was made by Charan Singh, Regional Director, Softlines at TUV Rheinland India, while participating in a panel discussion in the recently concluded ‘Kids India 2016’ event held at Mumbai.

The panel discussion was primarily focused on compliance of standards (both international and national) relating to toy safety. Charan Singh was a part of panel discussion on Toy Safety with Vivek Jhangiani, President TAITMA, John Baby, CEO, Funskool and Hemant Bhasin from Flipkart.

“Toys are an important and integral part of growing kids and have always been a challenging market for our manufacturers. We at TÜV Rheinland ensure that these toys are safe to use for kids with our global experience and in-depth expertise,” said Charan Singh. “Compliance is a must with respect to International standards (for toys exporters to EU etc) and the same might be applicable with respect to standards which we might see in India in coming time. With our services, our customers can build consumer confidence in the quality and safety of their toys, protect children from contaminated and unsafe toys, decrease their risk of liability with documented safety standards and improve their standing in the market with our neutral mark of approval”.

“Parents would love to watch their children play all day - but sometimes, that's just not possible. And as every parent knows, even playtime can have its hidden hazards. The goal of our toy safety testing is to minimize these hazards. We test and certify toys according to the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC and European-wide standards, like EN 71 and EN 62115. From teddy bears to model trains, the ‘Toy Directive’ applies to all playthings intended for children up to age 14. You can also get a TÜV Rheinland GS mark in combination with your product certification,” added Charan Singh.