Software Developer with 1 year experience earning just 12k per month ,feel like I was lied to about joining small startups as a fresher

I used to work in BPO, decided to transition to tech as most people used to look down upon my job and said i had to get a "high value skill/high income job". Cool, since I liked coding and working with computers i decided to get into Software Development. Everybody said "wherever you can get into as a fresher, no matter how low the salary you should take it". So landed a job as junior software developer in a tiny startup in Technopark. Starting with 10k per month and now that I completed a year they've bumped it up to 12k. I started applying to jobs and all the HRs are now asking for current CTC and they're all saying the maximum they'll give is 30% hike. Even tier 1 city companies are following this. So...WTF???? So how many switches is it gonna take to get to just a decent salary?? Even by Trivandrum's standards it's gonna take atleast 5-6 switches?? I see these Brototype students getting placed with 5 LPA and stuff as freshers?? Is that all bullshit? Am I doomed with this 1.4 LPA salary? Is starting from the bottom in Tech a lie? Two of my friends who started their careers in Tech started with 9k per month salaries, now they're earning more than 10 LPA with 5-6 years of experience, so it was seeing them I thought it was completely fine to start with that kinda meagre salary. Am I missing something?