The Centre is mulling to remove the minimum educational qualification required for procuring driving license in the country. The road transport ministry said that the move will stoke the employment rate in the country.

Currently, under Rule 8 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 to obtain a transport vehicle driver licence must have passed class 8. The ministry has already initiated a process to amend the rule, and a draft notification in this regard will be issued soon.

The ministry of road transport and highways in an official statement said that removing the educational qualification requirement will help skilled drivers from economically lower sections of the society to be eligible for driving a transport vehicle.

The ministry said that scrapping of educational qualification will open windows of employment particularly for the country’s youth and will help to fill the vacancy of 22 lakh drivers in the transport and logistics sector that is impeding the economic growth.

The ministry highlighted that due to the current rule, drivers in the rural areas who have not passed class 8 but are skilled and literate end up missing driving job opportunities.

“In a recent meeting in the transport ministry, the Haryana government had requested for waiver of the educational qualification condition for drivers from the economically backward Mewat region where the population is dependent for livelihood on low-income earning pursuits including driving,” the statement reads.

The Haryana government had informed that the ministry that scores of people in the region possess the required skills to drive a vehicle, but fail to obtain the driving license due to minimum education requirement. This made the state government realise that driving is more of a skilful task, and the condition of minimum education qualification only hinders the chances of eligible unemployed youth to get the job.

However, the ministry has said that the removal of minimum educational qualification will be met with strict training and skills testing of drivers, so that road safety is not compromised. The ministry has also said that the vehicle training school or establishment should make sure that the drivers can read roadside signs.

This comes at a time when the government is failing to tackle the growing menace of bogus driving license. In 2017, Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways admitted that almost one-third of driving license in the country are fake.

“30 per cent of the license in India is bogus. It is embarrassing for me to state this as a minister,” Gadkari had said. The figure only adds to the woes of citizens, whose safety is in the hands of these drivers.

Also Read: Rajasthan High Court Orders Cancellation Of Driving Licences Of Those Who Can’t Read