Government announces 20 percent hike in honorarium for GKK workers

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Northeast & MoS PMO, DoPT, Dr. Jitendra Singh disclosed here today, that the government has ordered a significant 20% hike in the honorarium being paid to workers of Grih Kalyan Kendra (GKK), a welfare society working under the aegis of Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) for the welfare of needy central government employees particularly those belonging to lower income groups. This was announced during a meeting with a group of GKK female workers who called on him and presented a memorandum citing their long pending grievances regarding enhancement of honorarium and extension of service tenure.

The GKK representatives said that currently the organization is running nearly 30 centres in Delhi and 14 outside Delhi in cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Kolkata, etc., but neither the recognition received by the workers is equivalent to their performance or educational qualifications nor are they getting any incentives by way of enhancement of salary or service tenure. They complained that a number of women employees working for Grih Kalyan Kendra are having post-graduation or higher qualification but are grossly under-paid. Similarly, they complained, they are engaged temporarily for a fixed term and therefore, by the time the term of service is over, many of them become over-age to apply for a government job.

The memorandum pleaded that those of the workers who have crossed the maximum upper age limit prescribed in recruitment rules should be adjusted against the available vacancies in relaxation of the upper age limit. They also complained that many of the lady-teachers are functioning as day-care teachers or creche-care workers but the emoluments received by them are not even a fraction of what their counterparts receive in other sectors.

In these days of high cost of living, the Grih Kalyan Kendra representatives said that they were not only hand-to-mouth but found it unaffordable to sustain the livelihood and education of their children.