Kerala Govt Allocates Funds For Social Security Pensions, Increases Honorarium For Asha And Anganwadi Workers

The Kerala government allocated Rs 14,500 crore for the social security pensions in this year’s budget. K N Balagopal, the financial minister of Kerala, presented the budget for the financial year 2026-27 in the legislative assembly on January 28, where he announced the fund allocation for social security pensions, and also hiked honorariums for Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers and Anganwadi workers.

The state finance minister announced a Rs 1,000 hike in ASHA workers’ and anganwadi workers’ honorarium. It also announced an increase of Rs 500 for Anganwadi helpers.

ASHA workers have been demanding a hike in honorarium and an increase in retirement age for some time. In early 2025, the state government decided to freeze the order to fix their retirement age at 62 years, and now honorarium has been hiked, too. ASHA workers are female workers trained in healthcare to work as community health activists. Anganwadi workers are those working in the early childhood care in anganwadi centres.

As of September 2022, there were 26,448 ASHAs in Kerala getting Rs 6,000 per month, as per a Lok Sabha reply by Bharati Pravin Pawar on February 3, 2023.

In addition to this, the government also announced a raise in payments to pre-primary teachers and literacy mission motivators. The payment increased by Rs 1,000 per month for them. For the cooking staff in schools, the wages have been increased by Rs 25 per day.

Further, the government laid out Rs 3,700 crore for the Stree Suraksha Scheme launched in October 2025, which started accepting applications from December 22, 2025. This scheme is for unemployed women and transgender women. To apply for this scheme, an applicant must be between 35 and 60 years of age and a permanent resident of Kerala. The applicant must be unemployed, not even engaged in contractual work. Under this scheme, the government provides Rs 1,000 per month as a steady financial support to the beneficiaries, who are not employed anywhere and not getting assistance under any other scheme.