Lost in language: Mumbai autowallahs returning to hometowns in UP & Bihar

Barwani: Along the Agra-Mumbai National Highway last month, an unusual sight played out. Autorickshaws — dozens of them — were headed not towards Mumbai, but away from it. Their drivers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were returning home.The reason: a Maharashtra govt directive requiring auto and taxi drivers to speak, read, and understand Marathi. Now, after the state govt deferred the rule by six months on April 27, some are making the return journey.Ranoj Kumar, general secretary of the Paschim Maharashtra Taxi Rickshaw Union, Dharavi, estimated that around 3,500 drivers may have gone back to UP and Bihar — a small fraction, he said, of Mumbai’s total driver base. “They will definitely return to focus on their only livelihood,” said Kumar.He also questioned why the language requirement was being applied only to auto rickshaw and taxi drivers and not to workers in other sectors.The scale of the outward movement in April was visible along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border. Sachin Jaiswal, who runs a roadside hotel and sugarcane juice stall at Bijasan in Barwani district, said roughly 1,500 people travelling in auto rickshaws passed through the area headed towards UP and Bihar. “Many of them stopped at our hotel for a breather and revealed that the new rule had forced them to leave Mumbai,” he said.Bijasan police outpost in-charge Rohit Patidar confirmed seeing 40 to 50 auto rickshaws daily during April. “When their numbers increased, we asked them about the reason. Most said they were returning because of concerns over the Marathi language requirement,” he said.At the Jamli toll plaza nearby, operations manager Rakesh Mandloi said drivers had cited both gas shortages and the language issue as reasons for leaving.For many drivers, the anxiety went beyond language tests. Fears had also circulated about demands for long-term domicile proof. “We were told that by May 1 it would become mandatory to speak, read and understand Marathi. Many of us were worried because we do not know the language properly. There were also fears of verification drives and language tests,” said one returning driver. Another added: “There was discussion about requiring 15 years of residence proof. That created panic among drivers from outside Maharashtra.”Shahrukh, from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, has driven an auto rickshaw in Navi Mumbai since 2015 but returned home amid the uncertainty. A driver from Bijnor, operating in Thane for nearly a decade, said fear of strict implementation forced him to leave despite having a basic grasp of Marathi.DM Gosavi, general secretary of the Seva Sarthi Autorickshaw Taxi and Transport Union, maintained that the exodus was driven largely by rumour. His union launched an online Marathi learning programme from May 1. “Auto-rickshaw drivers should not be afraid,” he said, adding that the government should set up proper language-learning infrastructure at RTO centres.According to Gosavi, approximately 3.5 lakh autorickshaw drivers are registered across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with around 5 lakh taxi drivers in Mumbai city.