Mumbai- A passenger gets into a cab in Dadar, asks for a destination in Hindi. Another gives directions in Marathi. A third uses English. A taxi driver answers in whatever combination of languages allows the ride to continue. For thousands of drivers who spend their working lives moving through one of India’s most linguistically diverse cities, this everyday multilingualism has long been part of the job.
Now the Maharashtra government wants something more formal: auto-rickshaw, taxi and app-based commercial cab drivers must demonstrate a working knowledge of Marathi.
The government says the requirement is about ensuring that drivers can understand passengers and communicate with them in the state’s official language. Thousands of drivers originating from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who form a major share of Mumbai and MMR's transport workforce, worry the rule threatens their sole source of income.
Their question is: Can language proficiency become a condition for keeping the livelihood on which their families depend?
The Maharashtra government began enforcing the requirement after a 105-day training and assessment programme. On August 25, Regional Transport Offices issued notices to 331 auto and taxi drivers who failed to demonstrate the required working knowledge of Marathi; 139 of those notices were in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The enforcement has already triggered protests, road blockades and a renewed legal debate. And behind the headlines is a workforce that spends most of its day on the road.
Mumbai has more than 2.8 lakh autorickshaw permits and around 20,000 taxi permits, covering an estimated five lakh drivers across shifts.
On 12 August the state notified the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (Third Amendment) Rules, 2026, inserting working-knowledge-of-Marathi conditions into the 1989 rules:
Rule 4(4): working knowledge of Marathi for the relevant driving authorisation.
Rule 24: the same condition for authorised drivers of electronically metered motor cabs.
Rule 78: an additional condition for permit holders.
Rule 85: the condition also applies at the time of renewal of permits for electronically metered motor cabs.
For authorised drivers of motor cabs fitted with electronic meters, the amended Rule 24 provides that the driver must have working knowledge of Marathi.
If an authorised driver is found not to possess that knowledge, the licensing authority is required to issue a notice giving the driver one month to acquire it.
If the driver still does not comply, the authority may, after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard, suspend the authorisation on the driving licence for up to three months.
Continued non-compliance can result in the authorisation being revoked.
The amendments also put Marathi proficiency into provisions concerning permit holders and permit renewals.
The rule therefore goes beyond a request that drivers voluntarily learn Marathi.
Working knowledge of Marathi has now been incorporated into the regulatory framework governing commercial passenger transport.
The policy initially attracted attention because of its impact on traditional taxis and autorickshaws. But the government has clarified that app-based commercial cabs are not exempt.
Drivers operating through platforms such as Ola, Uber and Rapido fall within the framework where the vehicle and authorisation meet the applicable regulatory definitions. That makes the issue much larger than the traditional black-and-yellow taxi or suburban autorickshaw.
It potentially affects a much wider section of Mumbai's commercial passenger transport workforce.
The Transport Department's stated argument is practical rather than linguistic nationalism.
Officials have cited complaints about drivers being unable to understand passengers' instructions or communicate effectively in Marathi.
The issue received renewed attention after a pilot inspection by the Mira-Bhayandar RTO found autorickshaw drivers who, according to officials, lacked basic Marathi proficiency.
Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik subsequently announced the requirement.
The government then launched a 105-day training and assessment programme from May 1, covering 59 RTOs, sub-RTOs and language training centres across Maharashtra. More than 4,500 teachers associated with the Konkan Marathi Sahitya Parishad and Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh participated in training drivers.
The course was designed around practical situations rather than literary Marathi.
Drivers were trained in everyday exchanges involving:
asking passengers where they wanted to go;
understanding destinations and directions;
discussing fares;
answering routine questions;
communicating during an ordinary journey.
That distinction matters.
The government has repeatedly described the requirement as working or functional knowledge, not fluency in Marathi.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also said on August 24 that drivers do not need to be experts in Marathi.
The government programme reached a substantial number of drivers, but it did not result in universal certification. According to figures reported after the training programme:
1,65,600 drivers applied for the programme.
Of these, 1,40,423 had successfully completed the course and passed the proficiency assessment, while 7,750 failed the assessment and were required to reappear.
Another 17,427 drivers had not completed the training by the August 15 deadline.
Mumbai accounted for the largest number of pending trainees: 9,196, followed by Thane with 4,871, Navi Mumbai with 1,400 and Palghar with 350.
At a certificate-distribution event in Thane on August 17, the state government said around 1.25 lakh auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers had completed the functional Marathi training programme.
These figures reveal an important point:
The issue is not simply that drivers are refusing to learn Marathi. A sizeable number have participated in training, while thousands still need either to complete the course or clear the assessment.
The enforcement phase has now moved beyond classrooms.
RTO teams are checking drivers for working knowledge of Marathi.
A reported test consists of 16 questions, with drivers who do not demonstrate the required proficiency receiving a one-month notice to improve their language skills.
On the first day of one enforcement exercise, 1,268 auto and cab drivers were reportedly issued notices, with some saying they had attended classes but remained unable to speak Marathi confidently.
This has opened another question: what exactly constitutes “working knowledge”?
Some drivers have complained that questions asked during roadside tests were outside the syllabus they had been taught during training.
From the government's perspective, the logic is straightforward. A public transport driver interacts with passengers every day. A driver should be able to understand basic instructions. A passenger should be able to communicate a destination. A driver should be able to answer routine questions. In that sense, the government's stated objective is functional communication, not literary proficiency.
The Mooknayak spoke to several cab and taxi drivers in Mumbai. Most were from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and have been driving in the city for three to ten years. A common thread emerged: few object to learning Marathi itself. What they object to is making it a condition of work. Several migrant drivers, including Muslims, said they feel the BJP government is using language as a pretext to target outsiders.
Danish, a Rapido driver from Katihar, Bihar, has been in Mumbai for five years. “I have no problem learning Marathi,” he said. His difficulty is time. Cab drivers spend the day on rides. In app-based work the destination often appears on the phone before the passenger even sits down. In his experience many passengers speak Hindi; conversations rarely go beyond destination, route or fare. “If I don’t get regular practice speaking Marathi, how do I suddenly prove proficiency in a formal test?” His objection is not to the language but to how it has been tied to employment.
Ashraf, from Sitamarhi, Bihar, made a similar point. Conversation in a cab is often brief. A passenger sits, states the destination and is dropped. Limited talk means limited chance to practise another language. He said Marathi and Hindi share enough that he has never faced a communication problem in years of driving, even without formal fluency. If the government wants drivers to learn Marathi, he argued, training should come with adequate time and support.
Siraj, a 45-year-old taxi driver from Bihar, was more blunt. He told The Mooknayak he suspects the rule could be used to target people from outside the state, especially Muslim drivers. “Drivers are being harassed without reason. I don’t see sufficient justification for this condition.”
Deepak Tiwari, from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, arrived in Mumbai only a few months ago and drives a hired cab. He pays the owner ₹400 a day. After CNG and other costs he is left with ₹600–800. Any regulatory action, he said, would hit daily income. He does not yet know all Mumbai routes and does not understand Marathi well. “If I don’t know a place I tell the passenger first and they explain the address. So far communication has not been a problem. I don’t understand why Marathi has been made compulsory.”
Local Marathi drivers see the requirement as practical. Rahul Nile, a Marathi cab driver, said the issue has been blown out of proportion. The government is not asking for literary mastery, only enough knowledge to understand what passengers say and reply to basic queries. Nile himself worked in Gujarat for three years and learned Gujarati. “If someone earns a living serving passengers in Maharashtra, why should he object to learning the basic language spoken by a large section of those passengers?” Learning the local language, he said, is part of adapting to the place of work.
Vasantrao, a taxi driver from Panvel, said there is no discrimination in the order. He described the resistance of some out-of-state drivers as a matter of ego- an objection to being told to learn a new language.
For 60-year-old Manoj Kumar, a UP driver, Mumbai’s roads have been home for 36 years. He began in a rented taxi and now drives his own second-hand car. Even after three decades in the city he is not fluent in Marathi. “I can understand what the passenger says and reply in short sentences,” he said. “But if they ask anything more, I am clueless.”
Manoj Kumar accepts that a working knowledge of Marathi is necessary up to a point. At the same time he argues that the expectation is not practical for drivers like him who spend 12 to 16 hours a day on the road.
Faizan Ahmed, a Rapido driver originally from Uttar Pradesh who has lived in Mumbai for eight years, said Marathi is not an issue for him. Living among Marathi speakers in his early years helped him pick up everyday conversation. He has neither taken the course nor sat the test. He believes the present controversy may be temporary and does not expect mass licence cancellations immediately. Drivers are anxious, he said, because they do not know how the rule will be enforced. He blamed politicians for creating unnecessary confusion and pressure. “Drivers work all day to feed their families, even when they are ill or there is a family emergency. Why does the government make life harder for people like us instead of focusing on bigger problems?”
Drivers who have already faced roadside tests complain that some questions went beyond what was taught in the training classes. Officers have been asking drivers to speak everyday work-related sentences in Marathi, for example, that the meter is on or that they need to stop briefly for CNG.
The issue is not new. On 1 March 2017 the Bombay High Court quashed a November 2016 government circular that had sought to make Marathi compulsory for auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers. The court held that autos fall under the definition of “motor cab” and that the provision the government had relied on (Rule 24 of the 1989 rules) excluded motor cabs. It also directed that applicants should not be disqualified merely for not speaking Marathi or lacking local knowledge. The core question then was whether the existing Motor Vehicles Act and rules gave the state power to impose such a condition. The court said no.
The 2026 amendments are the government’s attempt to create an explicit legal basis by changing the rules themselves rather than interpreting the old ones. A public interest petition challenging the new policy has been filed and expecting urgent hearing by the Bombay High Court.
The petitioners four cab drivers argue that the state has treated citizens of other states as outsiders, violating Articles 19(1)(d) and 19(1)(e) and the constitutional principle of single citizenship. They say they respect Marathi and do not oppose its promotion; many already use functional Marathi at work. Their case is that a language cannot be imposed by threatening licences and livelihoods, and that neither the Constitution nor the Motor Vehicles Act permits such a condition.
The contest now is no longer only about whether drivers should know some Marathi. It is about how that requirement is enforced, whether it becomes a barrier to work for migrant drivers, and whether the amended rules will survive judicial scrutiny.
For Danish, Ashraf, Siraj, Deepak and thousands of drivers like them, the answer should not depend simply on whether they were born speaking Marathi. It should depend on whether a fair system gives them a realistic opportunity to acquire the basic language skills the State says their work requires and whether the enforcement of that requirement respects both the law and their right to earn a living.
That is where Maharashtra's Marathi language policy is now being tested: not merely on the road, but at the intersection of language, law and livelihood.
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