Key Highlights
- The hike: Gram praharis’ monthly honorarium rises from ₹2,500 to ₹3,500, a 40% increase.
- From: October 13, with CM Yogi Adityanath expected to announce it in Bareilly.
- Who they are: About 60,000 village watchmen who pass on local law-and-order information to police stations.
- A pattern: Cooks, Anganwadi workers, panchayat assistants and Shiksha Mitras have also received hikes recently.
- Next: Pensions for elderly, destitute women and persons with disabilities may rise from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500.
The Uttar Pradesh government is set to raise the monthly honorarium of around 60,000 village watchmen, known as gram praharis, by ₹1,000, from ₹2,500 to ₹3,500, starting October 13. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to announce the decision at an event in Bareilly, where he will also felicitate village watchmen at the Bareilly Police Lines.
Who Are Gram Praharis?
Attached to local police stations, village watchmen are the police’s eyes and ears in rural areas. They pass on information about suspicious activity, local disputes and law-and-order issues, and help maintain contact between villages and police. They have long demanded better pay.
Why It Matters: A Raise, but Still Modest
The 40% hike is meaningful for workers on very low pay. Even after the increase, though, ₹3,500 a month works out to roughly ₹115 a day, highlighting how little many honorarium workers who support essential public services earn.
A Series of Hikes
The decision is part of a wider pattern of increases for honorarium and allowance-based workers in UP:
| Group | Old | New |
|---|---|---|
| Gram praharis (~60,000) | ₹2,500/month | ₹3,500/month |
| Midday meal cooks (~3.53 lakh) | ₹2,000/month | ₹3,000/month |
| Panchayat assistants (57,000+) | ₹6,000/month | ₹9,000/month |
| Shiksha Mitras (~1.28 lakh) | ₹10,000/month | ₹18,000/month |
| Anganwadi workers | – | +₹4,000/month |
| Anganwadi helpers | – | +₹2,000/month |
| Prantiya Rakshak Dal volunteers | ₹500/day | ₹600/day |
Pensions Could Be Next
The government is also considering raising monthly pensions for senior citizens, destitute women and persons with disabilities from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500. The proposal has the Chief Minister’s in-principle approval and may go to the Cabinet in the second half of November.
The schemes cover more than 67 lakh senior citizens, 42 lakh destitute women and 12 lakh persons with disabilities, about 1.21 crore people in all. A ₹500 monthly increase for all of them would cost roughly ₹600 crore a month, or over ₹7,000 crore a year.
The Bigger Picture
Taken together, these hikes reach crores of people in villages and towns across the state. They come as Uttar Pradesh heads towards Assembly elections in 2027, and as the state balances welfare spending with fiscal pressures. Funds for the gram prahari hike are likely to come through a supplementary budget.
The Bottom Line
For UP’s village watchmen, ₹1,000 more a month is welcome relief. For the state, it is one more step in a broad push to raise payments for frontline and welfare workers.
With inputs from IANS.