Auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers in the Kandivali region of Mumbai parked their vehicles and staged a protest over the Marathi mandate, claiming that the pressure to learn the language to be able to drive in the city is 'unfair'. Traffic on Kandivali Link Road was briefly disrupted after the protesters began a three-day strike demanding justice.
The Maharashtra Transport Department has been enforcing a rule requiring auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers to demonstrate a working knowledge of the state's primary language, Marathi.
Maharashtra has around 9.65 lakh auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers. According to State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, 1.65 lakh drivers have undergone Marathi training and received certificates.
The Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) across the state have been carrying out checks and issuing notices to drivers lacking adequate knowledge of the language. One month is being given to drivers to learn the language. Failure to do so will result in the suspension of their badges for three months. Continued refusal to learn Marathi could lead to action to permanently cancel both the badge and permit.
NDTV spoke to a bunch of auto-rickshaw and cab drivers to understand their challenges.
"We are trying to learn the language; I can reply in broken Marathi," said one of the protesters. "I can read but I am not fluent in conversing. If given time, we can improve."
Another driver claimed to know several languages, including Gujarati, Punjabi and English, but questioned the need to penalise people for not knowing a particular language.
"In a democratic country, why do we need to scold people to learn a language? If I move to Punjab, will I be required to learn Punjabi to work there? What's the point of a democratic country then?"
Another driver called it an "injustice" and said he is trying to learn the language, but unable to pick up. The last resort, according to him, is to move back to his hometown.
"At the time of issuing a licence, we should have been told that knowing the Marathi language is mandatory," he added.
The protesters said that they have been driving in Mumbai for the past 40-50 years. They maintain that they understand and even speak Marathi to some extent. Despite this, they are being harassed and fined over the language issue.
"We are 55-60-year-old. We have never been to school. How can we speak Marathi?" a driver said in an interview with news agency ANI. "Had we been educated, we would have been sitting in an office. We are trying to speak broken Marathi but that is not being considered, we are being penalised instead. Can we pay a fine fo Rs 15,000-20,000?"
What Basic Proficiency Test In Marathi Includes
A deadline of August 15 was set for non-Marathi drivers to learn the language. During the checking drive, 16 questions related to daily work are posed. This tests the drivers' ability to converse in Marathi with passengers or at fuel stations.
For example, "Mala CNG bharayche aahe. Thode thambave lagel" (I need to fill up with CNG, we'll have to stop for a while); "majhi rickshaw/taxi sharing-chi aahe" (my auto/taxi is a shared one); and "meter chalu kele aahe" (have started the meter) were among the responses that officials expected from the drivers.
