BBC:
An Indian state has given taxi and tuk-tuk drivers one more year to learn the local language after a new rule making it mandatory sparked protests.
Transport officials in the western state of Maharashtra had begun testing drivers’ ability to conduct basic conversations in Marathi, the state’s official language, on 20 August. Those who failed were given a month to learn the language, after which they risked having their licences suspended or cancelled.
The government said the requirement was meant to improve communication between drivers and passengers and ensure safer journeys.
But the rule alarmed drivers’ unions, who argued that workers should not risk losing their livelihoods while they were still learning the language. Many of the drivers are migrants who came to Maharashtra from other parts of India in search of work, including the populous Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Amid protests, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced last week that the drivers would be given another year to learn Marathi, as many had been out of the formal education system for years and needed more time.
State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik has said that drivers will be expected to learn Marathi during the year and that there will be more extensions.
Maharashtra has almost 979,000 valid tuk-tuk and taxi permits, nearly half of them in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
The extension has brought some relief to drivers who had feared losing their ability to work.
