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Kochi, May 6
Kerala the land of culture and traditions is the home to many religions giving this state a varied feel. This cultural diverse state boasts an array of worship places for all religion, from temples, churches and mosques. But the one common factor in all these religions are the priests. Well its very sad to know that these priests are paid very poorly in all religions.
If we look at the salaries of these priests we can find that they are paid far too low. In the case of Catholic Church priests, they use to get a fixed amount as monthly allowance. It is also known that amount even though paid to them as monthly allowance is not more than Rs 4000. The allowance could also differ as per the area the priest is working in; he may get more for working in an urban area.
A priest of Cochin Devaswom board gets a monthly salary of Rs 4000, the salary increases as per the service of the priest. Apart from the salary these priests are also entitled to get the dakshina (offerings) by the devotees. Meanwhile the Travancore Dewaswom board has a grade system for fixing the salaries of the priests. The grades are fixed on the basics of the years of service of the priest. These priest starts as part-timer with a basic salary of Rs 2300. Only after three years the priests gets full time appointment with a basic salary of Rs 3600-4510. The board also gives them other benefits like yearly increment, leave and pension.
In the Muslim community there are no fixed salary system for the Imams, basically the salary for the Imams is fixed by the Mahallu Committee. The minimum salary an Imam gets is Rs 2500 and average salary of Rs 3000 per month. The salary mostly doesn’t exceed over Rs 5000 and it depends on the financial strength of the committee. They can make additional income by teaching in madrasa and from marriages and funeral ceremonies.
But one thing is for sure that in such an inflationary situation such mere salary for these priests seems far too low to make both ends meet. They might be the most respected section in society but they are getting far too less for what they are doing.
