Funeral Assistance for Construction Workers (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu)

What is the funeral assistance for construction workers?

Funeral Assistance is a welfare scheme of the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, run by the Labour and Employment Department of the UT Administration from Silvassa. The Board lists it as Form X in its Dadra and Nagar Haveli scheme series and as Form VII on its Daman and Diu pages.

According to the Board's scheme page, an application in the prescribed form is submitted to the Member Secretary (BOCWWB) in case of death of a registered member or spouse, and the Board may sanction an amount of Rs 20,000 to the nominees or dependants towards funeral expenses. Death benefits and funeral benefits are both listed by the Board among the major activities every welfare board constituted under the BOCW (RE and CS) Act, 1996 must carry out.

The amount is deliberately small and deliberately quick. It is not meant to replace lost income. The separate death ex-gratia does that, but to put cash in the family's hands for the last rites at the moment when they have none.

Who can claim the funeral assistance?

You can claim if:

• The deceased was a registered beneficiary of the BOCW Welfare Fund in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman or Diu, or was the spouse of such a registered beneficiary.
• You are a nominee or dependant of the registered member. The Board pays the amount to the nominees or dependants, so the claimant must be able to show the nomination on record or a dependency relationship.
• You hold the death certificate.

You cannot claim if:

• The deceased was never registered with the Board, and was not the spouse of a registered member. There is no route to the benefit for an unregistered household.
• You cannot establish that you are a nominee or dependant of the member.
• The registration had lapsed for non-payment of subscription and was not revived before the death.
• The member was availing benefits under the ESIC Act, 1948 or the EPF and MP Act, 1952, which the Board has clarified disentitles a worker from similar benefits under the BOCW welfare schemes.

What documents are required?

How to apply for funeral assistance

1. Obtain the death certificate for the deceased member or spouse from the registering authority. Nothing moves without it.
2. Locate the deceased member's BOCW registration details, the district of registration (DNH, Daman or Diu), the registration number and the identity card issued by the Board.
3. Collect the prescribed form — Form X in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Form VII in Daman and Diu, from your district labour office, or open the "Funeral Assistance" page on bocwddd.in.
4. Fill in the form with the deceased member's details, your own details as nominee or dependant, your relationship to the member, and your bank account number, bank name, branch and IFSC code.
5. Submit the completed form to the Member Secretary (BOCWWB) through your district labour office, attaching the death certificate and the nomination or dependency proof, and take an acknowledgement.
6. File the death ex-gratia claim at the same time, in Form XI in Dadra and Nagar Haveli or Form VIII in Daman and Diu. The two claims arise from the same event and use overlapping documents, so filing them together saves the family a second trip.

How registration works, for families reading this in advance

Registration is what makes every one of these claims possible.

1. Any building worker aged 18 to 60 who has been engaged in building or other construction work for not less than 90 days during the preceding twelve months is eligible for registration as a beneficiary of the BOCW Welfare Fund.
2. The application goes in the prescribed form, with the prescribed documents, to the officer authorised by the Board.
3. The registration fee under the Act is not more than Rs 50.
4. Record a nomination at the time of registration and keep it updated. The funeral assistance and the death ex-gratia are both paid to nominees or dependants, and a missing nomination is what most often turns a simple claim into a long enquiry.

How to check the status of a funeral assistance claim

The Board does not publish an online tracker for welfare claims. Follow up at the district labour office where the form was filed, quoting the deceased member's BOCW registration number, the date of death and the date of submission. Where a death ex-gratia claim has been filed alongside, the Member Secretary is required to conduct an enquiry into the eligibility of the applicant, and the funeral claim is usually taken up in the same file.

Why funeral assistance claims get delayed

• No death certificate, or a certificate that does not match the name on the registration record.
• Nomination not recorded with the Board, forcing the office to establish dependency from scratch.
• Registration lapsed before the death for want of subscription.
• Claimant's bank details wrong, which stops the transfer after sanction.
• Name spelling mismatches between the death certificate, the registration record and the claimant's Aadhaar.
• Overlap with ESIC or EPF benefits, which the Board has expressly excluded.

What else the family can claim after a death

Funeral assistance is deliberately narrow. Two other entitlements usually arise from the same event, and the family should ask about both at the same visit:

• Ex-gratia for death (Form XI in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Form VIII in Daman and Diu): Rs 4,00,000 where the member died in the course of employment and Rs 2,00,000 where the death was due to any other reason, payable to the nominees or dependants. It requires a death certificate issued by a Government Doctor or a Registered Medical Practitioner not below the rank of Medical Officer, and a dependent or heirship certificate from the Competent Authority. The Member Secretary conducts an enquiry into the applicant's eligibility, and the compensation is to be disbursed within 60 days from the date of death.
• Financial assistance for education (Form VII in Dadra and Nagar Haveli), where the deceased member's children are studying, the Board's education assistance of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a month by class, with tuition and hostel fee reimbursement at graduation level, may still be relevant to the household's claim history. Ask the labour office what the position is once the member has died.

Because the death ex-gratia is bound by a 60-day clock that starts at the date of death rather than the date of the application, the practical advice is simple: file the funeral assistance form and the death benefit form together, as soon as the death certificate is in hand, and pursue the heirship certificate in parallel rather than waiting for it before filing anything.

Where to get help

• Dadra and Nagar Haveli: BOCW Welfare Board, Old Circuit House Building, opposite Bal Bhawan, Silvassa 396230. Phone 0260-2642374, email labour-dnh@nic.in
• Daman: Vidhyut Bhavan, Kachigam, Daman 396215. Phone 0260-2261059, email lelidaman@gmail.com
• Diu: Labour and Employment Office, Collectorate, Diu 362520. Phone 02875-252444

The Board's website carries a feedback form and a Right to Information page for written grievances. Filing a funeral assistance claim is free of cost, and no agent is authorised to charge a bereaved family for arranging a sanction.