Bhopal: Family Court Counsellors Lead Distressed Life

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Counsellors at the Bhopal family court who help people to overcome depression and psychological disorders are leading a distressed life. The reason is that their honorarium has not been increased for past seven years. They get Rs 6,000 per month.

Counsellors at family court told Free Press that their efforts to demand a regular salary from state government proved futile as the latter paid no heed. Counsellor Sunidhi Mishra (name changed) said every counsellor receives Rs 300 for one counselling session and they can conduct only one session in a day. Given the fact that working days in the court are 20 every month, they get a meagre sum of Rs 6,000 that makes it difficult to make ends meet.

In Maharashtra and other states, the family court counsellors are gazetted officers and receive monthly salary. Another counsellor named Riddhi Gupta (name changed) said that they don’t get travel allowance either, which adds to their financial problems.

At present, Bhopal family court has seven counsellors. In all, state has 97 family counsellors who also face the same problem.