Financial Assistance for Education and Skill Development for Bihar Construction Workers (BOCW Board)

What is the Bihar construction workers' education and skill scheme?

The Bihar Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board runs a financial assistance for education scheme for the children of registered construction workers, paired with a tool purchase grant that follows skill upgradation training. In the board's scheme document the two appear as शिक्षा के लिए वित्तीय सहायता and औजार क्रय योजना. Readers across the Hindi belt search for this kind of benefit as Nirman Shramik Shiksha evam Kaushal Vikas Yojana, which is the name Rajasthan's board uses; in Bihar the counter will recognise the education assistance and tool purchase names.

The board exists under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the companion Welfare Cess Act, 1996, brought into effect in Bihar through the Bihar Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2005 and their 2016 amendment. Funding comes from a 1 percent cess on the total construction cost of state, central, semi-government and private commercial construction in Bihar, deposited into a State Bank of India account maintained at Niyojan Bhawan, Beli Road, Patna. Employers who default pay interest of up to 2 percent a month, face certificate proceedings for recovery like land revenue, and can be prosecuted with up to six months' imprisonment and a fine.

Who is eligible for the education assistance?

Your child can claim if:

• You are a construction worker registered with the Bihar BOCW Welfare Board.
• Your membership has been live for at least one completed year.
• Your contributions are current. Registration costs Rs 50 in total, being Rs 20 registration fee and Rs 30 as five years of contribution at 50 paise a month, with renewal after five years.
• The child has secured admission to a course in the list below.

You cannot apply if:

• The worker is not registered with the board.
• The membership lapsed for non-payment of contributions. The board states plainly that membership ends on non-payment and no benefit is then available. Arrears at 50 paise a month can revive it, but not more than twice.
• The worker is employed in a managerial or administrative capacity, which falls outside the statutory definition of a construction worker.
• The worker is covered by the Factories Act, 1948 or the Mines Act, 1952, both of which the board excludes.
• The course is not one of those the board funds.

Registration itself is open to workers aged 18 to under 60 who have done at least 90 days of construction work in the previous 12 months. The board's list of covered trades runs to 20 categories and includes masons and their helpers, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, building electricians, floor and tile layers, centring and bar-binding workers, welders, concrete mixers and carriers, women workers carrying cement and mortar, roller operators, road, bridge and dam labourers, operators of modern road-laying machinery, site watchmen, plumbers and fitters, brick-makers and stone-breakers, unskilled temporary workers on railway, telephone and airport construction, and MGNREGA workers other than horticulture and forestry workers.

How much does the scheme pay?

Two points matter here. First, the higher-value slabs are tied to government institutions; a private engineering college seat does not attract the B.Tech grant. Second, the tool grant goes to the registered worker, not the child, and only after the board's skill training in that worker's own trade, so it is the skill-development component rather than a scholarship.

How to apply for the education assistance

1. Check that the parent's registration is live and at least a year old. Verify the contribution record on the registration card first; a lapsed membership is the commonest cause of a rejected claim.
2. Secure the admission and keep the fee receipt. Claims are made against an actual admission to a qualifying course, so the admission letter and the receipt for fees paid are the core of the file.
3. Get the prescribed application form. The board's document states that a beneficiary must apply in the prescribed form at the Labour Officer's office for every scheme except annual medical assistance. Forms are downloadable from the board's website.
4. Submit the form at the district Labour Officer (Shram Adhikari) office with the registration card, admission proof, fee receipt, last marksheet, Aadhaar of worker and student, and a bank passbook copy.
5. Or apply online through bocwscheme.bihar.gov.in, where the board's scheme applications and the scheme document are hosted. Log in with the registered worker's credentials and choose the education assistance scheme.
6. Keep the dated acknowledgement and follow up after about a month.

How to register as a construction worker first

1. Complete the registration form with a compulsory Aadhaar card, bank account details, age proof (Aadhaar, voter card, ESIC or school certificate, birth certificate, or a certificate from a medical officer not below Assistant Civil Surgeon rank for government servants), a 90-day employment certificate from the employer, and two colour passport-size photographs.
2. If the employer refuses the 90-day certificate, submit a self-declaration covering those 90 days. The board expressly allows this.
3. In rural areas, give the form to the Panchayat Rozgar Sevak or the Labour Enforcement Officer visiting the site. In urban areas, the Labour Enforcement Officer or Labour Superintendent collects forms at construction sites.
4. Pay the Rs 50 registration and contribution amount.

At least 5 percent of applications routed through Panchayat Rozgar Sevaks are re-verified by the Labour Enforcement Officer, and at least 5 percent of those routed through Labour Enforcement Officers are re-verified by the Labour Superintendent, before registration is granted after Aadhaar verification. Employers and contractors, separately, must register their establishments online at serviceonline.bihar.gov.in.

How to check the status of a claim

1. Log in to bocwscheme.bihar.gov.in with the registered worker's credentials and open the scheme application status screen.
2. If you applied on paper, quote the acknowledgement number at the district Labour Officer's office, which holds the file until sanction.
3. Once sanctioned, the amount is released by RTGS to the bank account on record. If the status shows sanctioned but nothing has arrived, the account number or IFSC on the form is the first thing to re-check.

Why claims get rejected

• Membership under one year, or contributions in arrears.
• Private institution admission claimed under a slab that the board limits to government institutions.
• No prescribed form. A plain application or a photocopied private format is not accepted.
• Missing 90-day work certificate at the registration stage, with no self-declaration filed in its place.
• Wrong bank details, which cause the RTGS transfer to fail.
• Course outside the funded list, for example a general BA or B.Com, which the scheme document does not cover.

What else the same registration gives

A live Bihar BOCW registration also covers maternity benefit equal to 90 days of the notified minimum wage for the first two deliveries, paternity benefit of Rs 6,000, a cash award of Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for children scoring 60 percent or more in Class 10 or Class 12, marriage assistance of Rs 50,000 after three years of membership, a bicycle grant of up to Rs 3,500, a house repair grant of up to Rs 20,000 after three years, annual medical assistance of Rs 3,000, old-age pension of Rs 1,000 a month after five years of membership and age 60, disability pension of Rs 1,000 a month with a lump sum of Rs 75,000 for total and Rs 50,000 for partial permanent disability, family pension, cremation assistance of Rs 5,000, death benefit of Rs 2 lakh for natural and Rs 4 lakh for accidental death, and board-funded contributions to Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan for workers aged 18 to 40 for five years, alongside Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY cover.

Help and grievance redressal

• Bihar Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Niyojan Bhawan, Patna 800001 to phone 0612-2525558, email biharbhawan111@gmail.com.
• Labour Resources Department Minister's cell — 0612-2528450.
• District Labour Officer (Shram Adhikari), whose email and mobile number the board publishes on its website.

No agent can obtain this assistance for you, and no payment beyond the Rs 50 registration and contribution amount is due to anyone.