UP: 10% Hike Too Little, Too Late, Say KGBV Staff After Increase in Honorarium

Lucknow: The Central and state governments have decided to increase the honorarium of Class-IV employees of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), an important component of the government’s flagship Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, by 10% in the new academic session 2024-25. The hike will be effective from April 1. With this, the salary of teachers and employees will increase by Rs 600-3,000. The last salary increase was in 2018.

The decision comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and three months after KGBV workers held a massive protest in Lucknow's Eco Garden. However, the KGBV Teacher and Non-Teaching Union All India has rejected the honorarium revision, and said they would continue the protest until the government accepted all demands, including regularisation of jobs, basic pay and social security.

There are 746 Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential Schools in the state. On average, about 10 to 15 staff are deployed in these schools. This includes teachers, part-time teachers, wardens, accountants, cooks, watchmen, peons etc.

The proposal for a 10% honorarium increase in UP was recently approved in the meeting of the Project Advisory Board (PAB) of the Union Education Ministry.

Contractual assistant teachers of these schools are paid Rs 24,000 per month whereas the basic pay for the post is around Rs 50,000. The KGBV employees have also complained of not getting paid on time. The protesters, who also demanded the release of their two-month salary dues, said their honorariums have not been revised for the past five years, NewsClick had reported earlier. 

Atul Kumar Bansal, state president of the Kasturba Gandhi Girls Teacher-Non-Teaching Union, said in 2018, there was a partial increase in salaries. He said the government had heeded the demand of KGBV staff after many years of struggle, yet the amount was less than that of the basic in other government schools.

The union said in a statement that the hike was “too little” and the workers would not accept any decision by the government unless it discussed the issues with them.

The head cook will get a salary of Rs 8,577, the assistant cook will get Rs 6,433 and other security guards (chowkidar) will get Rs 6,498.

Syeda Khatun (Yasmin Khan), an Urdu teacher at the KGBV in the Balrampur district, told NewsClick that after 10 years, her salary had increased by only 10%, which meant by 1% every year. 

"Despite working all these years, we have not received the minimum facilities from the government. We have been working with a meagre salary. At a time when inflation is skyrocketing in 10 years, where does this 10% increment stand? KGVB has been running since 2004 under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The ruling government renamed Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan but the condition of employees has not changed in these years. The salary of the watchman who works 12 hours has increased by only Rs 600. They are not getting even Rs 10,000 per month. How would they survive?" she said.