Priests in all the major religions are poorly paid as a study of their salary structure shows. Kerala, the land of culture and traditions 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 and the common factor among the priests are that they are paid very poorly irrespective of their religions.
In the catholic church priests get a fixed amount as monthly allowance. This amount is allotted from the income of parish, not from the diocese. Usually the amount is not more than Rs. 4,000. The allowance could also differ as per the area the priest is working in; he may get more for working in an urban area.
But things are different in Jacobite and Orthodox churches where the priests are allowed to marry. In the Jacobite church priest get the basic remuneration of graduate teachers.
In the muslin community there is now unified salary system for Imams. The remuneration for the Imams is fixed by the Mahallu committee to which the mosque belongs. 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.
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 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.
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