In one of the circular, Tharoor points out that while a UGC level Assistant professor‘s salary ranges from 15,600 to 39100 in five years, a sweeper’s pay scale range from 16500 to 357000 in three years.
Shashi Tharoor recently shared a picture that he claimed was ‘evidence’ of disparity in salaries of different government employees, and it prompted a debate on social media.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, the Congress MP shared snapshots of two circulars detailing the government officers from different departments and their pay scale under the University Grants Commission (UGC).
In one of the circulars, Tharoor points out that while a UGC-level Assistant Professor‘s salary is between Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 in five years, a sweeper’s pay scale ranges between 16500 to 357000 in three years.
“While we all applaud that sweepers are paid well, studying long & hard for the higher degrees required by an Assistant Professor earns her a lower salary,” Tharoor wrote, sharing the circular.
A college professor in Kerala sent me this evidence of the financial worth of her educational qualifications: while we all applaud that sweepers are paid well, studying long & hard for the higher degrees required by an Assistant Professor earns her a lower salary! pic.twitter.com/mcJtlQxS5v
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 3, 2021
Tharoor claimed the picture was shared with him by a college professor in Kerala.
The tweet prompted a debate online. While many suggested the circular was misleading and referred to an old pay scale, others argued that Kerala doesn’t follow the amended UGC pay scale.
But in Kerala, UGC scale is not paid to Assistant Professors. Same pay scale is being followed for 14 years
— Gopika G. G. (@drgopikagg) January 3, 2021
Sir, pay revision as per 7th Pay Commission has not been implemented for college teachers in Kerala. Now you can understand the point the lady who approached Dr Tharoor is making.
— K RAHUL🇮🇳 (@k_krahul) January 3, 2021
Higher education is valuable only for those with a passion for learning!
Best profession in India is that of the PM; no need for any qualifications + lot of respect from the highly educated engineers, doctors, academics, scientists, civil servants etc.— Dr Roshni (@RoshniManglore) January 3, 2021
SAD TRUTH!!!😓😓
It take approx 400-500 weeks to become an Assistant Professor.. starting from Graduation to Post Graduation and finally taking up Doctorate studies and at times Post-Doc studies.— Dr. Abraham Johnson (@DrAbrahamJohns1) January 3, 2021
Plane comparison is not good..we have to look into year service and other aspect also…sweeper might have 30yrs of service and A professor could have joined recently…so pls do not compare based on incomplete data…
— Hariom Soni (@hariomsoni87) January 3, 2021
Can you take up with Kerala government to implement 7th pay commission
— Ande Sudhakar (@andesudhakar) January 3, 2021
Perturbing.. have an inside view of this. But i guess it’s only going to change with growth & building the overall aggregate demand.
— Viplav Kambli (@viplav76) January 3, 2021
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