Marriage Financial Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB)

What is the Marriage Financial Assistance Scheme of the ANBOCWWB?

Marriage Financial Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB) is a cash grant of Rs 20,000 from the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board under the office of the Labour Commissioner and Director of Employment & Training, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair). The grant helps a registered construction worker meet the cost of his or her own marriage, or the marriage of up to two dependent children.

According to the Labour Department's welfare board page, the scheme states that a registered construction worker "shall be eligible to get an amount of Rs 20,000 (Rupees twenty thousand only) as assistance to meet the marriage expenses of the worker or his/her two dependent children".

The benefit is sometimes listed locally as the ANIBOCWWB marriage assistance or the construction workers' marriage grant. It sits within the same welfare set as the Board's education, medical, maternity, pension, death and funeral benefits, all funded from the cess collected on construction work in the islands under the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1998.

Who is eligible for ANBOCWWB marriage assistance?

You can claim if:

• You are a registered beneficiary of the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and can produce your identity card with the registration number and date.
• The marriage is your own, or that of a dependent son or daughter.
• Fewer than two of your children have already been given marriage assistance by the Board.
• You can get the certificate on Form-S signed by your Contractor, or by the President or General Secretary of your trade union.
• Your subscription record with the Board is in order. Subscriptions are collected by the contractor and remitted quarterly to the Board's designated State Bank of India account number 30678637478.

You cannot apply if:

• You are a construction worker who has never registered with the Board. Registration in Form-B under Rule 23(1) is the qualifying event for every Board scheme.
• Your registration has lapsed through non-payment of subscription.
• The marriage is that of a third or subsequent child, or of a relative who is not your dependent son or daughter, a sibling, nephew or grandchild does not qualify.
• You are an employer or contractor rather than a registered construction worker.
• The Board has already sanctioned Rs 20,000 for the same marriage, whether to you or to another registered worker in the same household.

What does Form-S ask for?

Form-S, the Application for Marriage Assistance under Rule 34(3), is addressed to the Secretary of the Board at Port Blair and has a compact structure:

1. Name and address of the registered construction worker.
2. Registration number and date, with a copy of the identity card to be enclosed.
3. A table of the worker's sons and daughters, showing for each the name, the date of birth or age, and the marital status.
4. The name of the son or daughter for whose marriage the assistance is sought.
5. Whether the applicant has already applied for financial assistance for the marriage of any son or daughter, and if so the details.

Below the applicant's declaration and signature is a certificate in these terms: "I hereby certify that the marriage of Shri/Smt … Son/daughter of … with Kumar/Kumari … son/daughter of … will take place on … at …", to be signed by the Contractor or the President or General Secretary of the trade union.

Two features of the form matter in practice. The table at item 3 lists all the worker's children with their marital status, which is how the Board checks the two-child limit at a glance. And the certificate is written in the future tense, indicating that the claim is meant to be filed around the wedding rather than years later.

How to apply for ANBOCWWB marriage financial 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, clear it through your contractor or at a State Bank of India branch and keep the deposit counterfoil.
2. Download Form-S, the Application for Marriage Assistance under Rule 34(3), from labour.and.nic.in, or collect a printed copy from the Labour Commissioner's office.
3. Fill in your own particulars; name and address, registration number and date, and complete the table of sons and daughters with date of birth or age and marital status for each.
4. Name the person whose marriage the claim relates to, and answer honestly whether marriage assistance has been claimed before for any child, with the details.
5. Get the certificate block signed by your Contractor, or by the President or General Secretary of your trade union, with the names of both bride and groom, their parentage, and the date and place of the marriage.
6. Attach a photocopy of your ANBOCWWB identity card, which Form-S 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), in person or through the Labour Department's field offices, and keep the acknowledgement.

How do I register with the Board first?

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 dates of commencement and conclusion and the number of days actually employed.

The Board's contractor-liability note sets out the practical requirements: the application is submitted by the worker personally or through the contractor to the concerned Beneficiary Registration Officer, with a registration fee of Rs 20, three passport-size photographs and attested photocopies of age and address proof. The certificate of engagement as a construction worker may be signed by the employer or contractor, a trade union President or General Secretary, 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.

Form-C, the nomination form under Rule 23(5), should be filed alongside so that dues from the Board have a recorded claimant.

How do I check the status of a marriage assistance claim?

The Board does not publish an online tracker for this scheme. Follow up with the Secretary of the Board at the Labour Commissioner's office, quoting your registration number and the date Form-S was submitted. The Labour Department publishes a list of beneficiaries and a list of dues to beneficiaries on labour.and.nic.in, which is where an approved but unpaid claim is most likely to appear. Where a claim stalls, raise it with the Assistant Labour Commissioner, the officer named in the department's Citizen Charter for matters under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act.

Why marriage assistance claims get rejected

• Certificate not signed by a Contractor or a trade union President or General Secretary, or signed by someone outside that list.
• Identity card copy not attached, which Form-S names as a mandatory enclosure.
• Two-child limit already exhausted, disclosed either by the applicant at item 5 or by the Board's own records.
• Registration lapsed or subscriptions in default.
• Incomplete table of children at item 3, so the Board cannot verify the limit.
• Date and place of marriage left blank in the certificate.
• Name mismatch between the identity card, Form-S and the bank account.
• Claim filed long after the wedding, where the certificate's future-tense wording can no longer be honestly completed.

Most of these can be cured by having the contractor or trade union re-execute the certificate correctly, attaching the identity card copy and resubmitting.

How much has the Board paid under this scheme?

The Board's published beneficiary list, against a status report showing 14,902 registered workers, Rs 64.52 crore of cess collected and 230 awareness camps as on 30 November 2018, records:

Marriage Assistance is the third most-used scheme by number of beneficiaries. The Rs 80,80,000 disbursed across 482 beneficiaries works out to close to Rs 16,800 per case, consistent with a Rs 20,000 ceiling and some claims settled at less.

What other Board benefits should a claimant know about?

A registered worker filing Form-S is often entitled to more than the marriage grant. The Board's set includes maternity benefit of Rs 20,000 for a registered woman worker and Rs 10,000 for a registered male worker whose wife is 19 years or older and not herself registered; educational assistance from Rs 300 a month for Class 1 to 5 up to Rs 2,000 a month for post-graduate study; medical assistance at Rs 200 a day for the first five days of hospitalisation and Rs 100 a day thereafter, capped at Rs 5,000, with up to Rs 1,00,000 for mainland referral cases; pension of Rs 1,000 a month after 55 years of age; 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; and skill development tool kits worth up to Rs 10,000.

For a newly married couple where both partners work in construction, registering the spouse as a beneficiary in her own right is worth doing immediately — it is what makes the higher Rs 20,000 maternity benefit available later.

Where do I complain if the grant is not released?

• Secretary, A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair). The authority to whom Form-S is addressed.
• Assistant Labour Commissioner. The designated officer for BOCW matters in the department's Citizen Charter, which sets a seven-working-day 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 may charge a commission for filing Form-S or for "getting the marriage grant sanctioned".