On Wednesday, The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) delivered the draft rules to make it compulsory for car manufacturers to install the alarm system for rear seat belts. The last date for the Public Comments on draft rules is said to be October 5, according to the notification by the Ministry.

The Government has been enforcing the usage of rear seatbelts after the accident of Cyrus Mistry, the Former Chairman of the Indian Conglomerate Tata Sons. He died in a car crash recently. As per the report, he was sitting in the rear seat and didn’t have his seat belt on, citing police officials. In India, one person dies every four minutes in road accidents; the World Bank informed last year. Analysing the recent road ministry report, the number of people killed and injured due to not putting on a seat belt during 2020 was recorded at 15,146 and 39,102, respectively.

Though in India, it is already mandatory for all the residents in a car to wear a seat belt, if they fail, they can be fined; passengers sitting at the back seldom do, and enforcement is also lax. The Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that his Ministry aims to split road accidents and related deaths by the end of 2024. The Union Cabinet Minister also informed the Government of India hoped to finalise a Draft for a mandatory Six Airbags in all cars by this year.

Earlier in August 2022, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari directed the e-commerce companies to prohibit selling devices designed to disable car seat belt alarms. Although, rear-seat passengers not wearing seat belt levy a fine of Rs 1,000 under Rule 138 (3) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR). The majority of people are either unaware of it or just unacknowledged. Along with this, even traffic policemen seldom fine rear-seat passengers for not wearing seat belts while driving.