Educational Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB)

What is the Educational Assistance Scheme of the ANBOCWWB?

Educational Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB) is a welfare benefit run by the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board attached to the office of the Labour Commissioner and Director of Employment & Training, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair). The scheme pays an education allowance to the sons and daughters of construction workers who are registered beneficiaries of the Board, from primary school right through to post-graduate and professional study.

According to the Labour Department's welfare board page, the Board was constituted in 2009 to frame and implement welfare schemes under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1998. Rules for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were framed in 2003 and amended in 2010, 2014 and 2015 to add the welfare schemes now in force. The money comes from the cess collected on construction work in the islands, not from a separate budget head, which is why registration and subscription are the gateway to every Board benefit.

The scheme is often written locally as the ANIBOCWWB or ANBOCWWB "education allowance", and both spellings refer to the same benefit.

How much does the ANBOCWWB educational assistance pay?

The Board publishes a fixed rate table by class or course. The amounts are stated per month.

The jump between slabs is significant. A worker with one child in Class 4 and another in Class 10 is looking at Rs 300 and Rs 700 a month respectively, while a child who reaches post-graduate study attracts Rs 2,000 a month, more than six times the primary-school rate. The professional-course category is the only one with no ceiling printed against it, and it is also the only one that is discretionary: the Board decides each MBBS, BE or equivalent case on merit.

Who is eligible for ANBOCWWB educational assistance?

You can claim if:

• You are a registered beneficiary of the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and hold a valid identity card with a registration number and date.
• The student is your son or daughter. Form-Q asks only for "details of sons or daughters of the registered construction worker".
• The child is currently studying in one of the classes or courses listed in the Board's rate table, and the institution is willing to certify this.
• Your subscription to the Board's fund is current. Board benefits under the A&N rules run alongside the obligation to pay the monthly subscription, which the contractor collects and remits quarterly to the Board's designated State Bank of India account number 30678637478.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a construction worker who has never registered with the Board. Working on a site is not enough; registration as a beneficiary in Form-B under Rule 23(1) is the qualifying event.
• Your registration has lapsed because subscriptions were not paid.
• The student is a nephew, niece, grandchild or other relative rather than your own son or daughter.
• The student has finished the course and the claim relates to a past period the institution will not certify.
• You are an employer, contractor or supervisor rather than a construction worker. The Board's scheme is for workers registered as beneficiaries.

How do I register with the Welfare Board first?

Registration is the step that trips up most first-time claimants, because the education allowance cannot be sanctioned to an unregistered worker.

Registration is applied for in Form-B under Rule 23(1), "Application for Registration as a Beneficiary". The form asks for the worker's name, father's or husband's name, date of birth with attested age proof, permanent and present address, marital status, and the name and address of every employer worked for in the last three months, with the dates of commencement and conclusion and the number of days actually employed.

The Board's published note on contractor liability states the practical requirements plainly: the application must be submitted by the beneficiary personally or through the contractor to the concerned Beneficiary Registration Officer, along with a registration fee of Rs 20, three passport-size photographs, and attested photocopies of age and address proof.

The certificate at the foot of Form-B, confirming that the applicant is or was engaged as a building or other construction worker, can be signed by the employer or contractor, the General Secretary or President of a trade union, the Secretary of a Gram Panchayat or of the Port Blair Municipal Council, the Adhyaksh of a Zilla Parishad, a Pramukh of a Panchayat Samiti, a Pradhan of a Gram Panchayat, a Labour Inspector, an Executive Officer of a Panchayat Samiti, or the Junior Engineer of the department concerned. That wide list matters, because a worker whose contractor has moved off the island can still get certified locally.

Form-C under Rule 23(5) is the nomination form and should be filed at the same time, naming dependants and the share each is to receive.

How to apply for ANBOCWWB educational assistance

1. Confirm your registration is live. Check that your ANBOCWWB identity card shows a registration number and date, and that your subscription is not in arrears. If it is, pay through your contractor or at a State Bank of India branch into the Board's designated account and keep the counterfoil.
2. Download Form-Q, the Application for Educational Assistance under Rule 33(2)(c), from the Labour Department site at labour.and.nic.in, or collect a printed copy from the Labour Commissioner's office.
3. Fill in your own details: name and address of the registered construction worker, and the registration number and date.
4. List each child in the table on Form-Q: name of student, date of birth, the class in which he or she is studying, and the name of the school.
5. Get the institution certificate signed. The block at the bottom of Form-Q must be completed by the school, college or ITI, confirming the student's name, parentage and class or course, and carrying the signature and seal of the institution.
6. Attach a photocopy of your Board identity card, which Form-Q expressly requires, along with your bank account details.
7. Submit the completed set addressed to the Secretary, A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), either in person or through the Labour Department's field offices.
8. Keep the acknowledgement and follow up with the Board office on the status of the sanction.

How do I check the status of my claim?

The Board does not run a public online status tracker for education claims. In practice there are three routes.

First, follow up directly with the Secretary of the Board at the Labour Commissioner's office, quoting your registration number and the date you submitted Form-Q. Second, the Labour Department publishes on labour.and.nic.in a list of beneficiaries and a list of dues to beneficiaries, which is worth checking for your name and registration number. Third, if the claim is stuck, raise it with the Assistant Labour Commissioner, who under the department's Citizen Charter is the officer responsible for BOCW registrations and licences.

Why educational assistance claims get rejected

• Worker not registered with the Board, or registration lapsed for non-payment of subscription.
• No institution certificate, or a certificate without the school's seal. Form-Q is incomplete without it.
• Identity card copy not attached, which the form lists as a mandatory enclosure.
• Class or course not covered. The rate table runs from Class 1 to post-graduate, so pre-primary study has no printed rate.
• Claim for a child who is not the worker's own son or daughter.
• Mismatch of names between the identity card, the school certificate and the bank account.
• Professional-course claim without Board approval. MBBS and BE cases need an express decision of the Board; a claim lodged as though the amount were automatic will not be sanctioned on its own.

The usual fix is procedural rather than legal: get the school to re-issue the certificate correctly, attach the identity card copy, clear subscription arrears, and resubmit.

How widely is this scheme used?

The Board's own status report gives a sense of scale. As on 30 November 2018, 14,902 workers were registered with the ANBOCWWB, Rs 64.52 crore of cess had been collected, Rs 10,15,30,030 had been disbursed across all benefits, and 230 awareness camps had been held.

Within that total, Educational Assistance dominates:

Educational Assistance alone accounts for roughly 88 per cent of all beneficiaries and about two-thirds of the money paid out. For a construction worker's family in the islands, this is the Board benefit most likely to be relevant year after year.

What other benefits come with ANBOCWWB registration?

Registration unlocks the Board's full set of schemes, so it is worth knowing what else you become entitled to: medical assistance at Rs 200 a day for the first five days of hospitalisation and Rs 100 a day thereafter subject to a maximum of Rs 5,000; up to Rs 1,00,000 where a beneficiary or dependant is referred to the mainland by government medical authorities; death benefit of Rs 1,00,000 for natural death and Rs 2,00,000 for accidental death during employment; funeral assistance of Rs 5,000; pension of Rs 1,000 a month after age 55; marriage assistance of Rs 20,000; maternity benefit of Rs 20,000 for a registered woman worker and Rs 10,000 for a registered male worker whose wife is 19 or older and not herself registered; and skill development tool kits worth up to Rs 10,000.

Where do I complain if the claim is not settled?

• Secretary, A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) — the sanctioning authority for all Board claims.
• Assistant Labour Commissioner. The officer named in the department's Citizen Charter for BOCW registrations and licences, with a seven-working-day service standard for registration and licensing under the Act.
• Labour Commissioner and Director of Employment & Training, Sri Vijaya Puram, the appellate level for the department's services. The Citizen Charter in force was issued on 7 May 2025 with a next review date of 6 May 2026.

Registration with the Board costs Rs 20 as a statutory fee. No agent is entitled to charge you anything extra to add your name to the beneficiary list or to file Form-Q on your behalf.