Promoting Registration for the Construction Workers (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu)

What is Promoting Registration for the Construction Workers?

Promoting Registration for the Construction Workers is a welfare scheme of the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board under the Labour and Employment Department, U.T. Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Under the scheme the Board distributes a sleeping mat, a blanket and a mosquito net to registered construction workers, in order to encourage construction workers to register with the Board.

The scheme is unusual in what it is trying to buy. Most welfare schemes pay for a need that has already arisen. An accident, a delivery, a marriage, a death. This one pays for an administrative act. Across India, the single biggest failure in construction-worker welfare is that the worker never registers, so the cess money sits in the fund and the benefits go unclaimed. A migrant labourer moving between sites in Silvassa, Dadra, Daman and Diu will rarely take an unpaid day off to fill a form for benefits that may pay out years later. A mat, a blanket and a mosquito net delivered now change that arithmetic, and they are also the three things a worker sleeping in a site shelter most immediately needs.

Key facts

• Run by the BOCW Welfare Board, Labour and Employment Department, U.T. Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• Benefit is in kind: a sleeping mat, a blanket and a mosquito net.
• Available to registered members of the Board.
• Applied for offline, on a prescribed format collected from the authorised officer.

Who is eligible for the mat, blanket and mosquito net?

You can claim if:

• You are a registered member of the BOCW Welfare Board of the U.T. Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and hold a live registration number.

You can register with the Board if:

• You are a resident of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• You are a building or other construction worker.
• You are between 18 and 60 years of age.
• You have been engaged in building or other construction work for not less than 90 days during the preceding 12 months.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply, if:

• You are below 18 or above 60 years. The BOCW Act, 1996 fixes this band for beneficiary registration and the Board cannot relax it.
• You cannot show 90 days of construction work in the previous twelve months.
• You are not a building worker within the meaning of the Act: people employed mainly in a managerial, supervisory or administrative capacity are outside the definition.
• You are not resident in the union territory.
• Your registration has lapsed for non-payment of the prescribed subscription.

The Board also notes, on its pension scheme page, that construction workers availing benefits under the ESIC Act, 1948 and the EPF and MP Act, 1952 are not entitled to receive similar benefits under the welfare schemes framed under the BOCW Act.

What documents are required?

Copies may be self-attested where the Board has not asked for formal attestation.

How to apply for the scheme

1. Apply for registration as a building or construction worker. Fill the prescribed registration form, attach photographs, attested age proof, attested address proof and the details of the establishment where you work, and pay the fee of not more than Rs 50.
2. Submit the registration application to the officer authorised by the Board for this purpose, at the Labour and Employment Office in your district. Collect the receipt and, when issued, the registration card carrying your BOCW Registration No.
3. Request the prescribed format for this welfare scheme from the same authorised officer of the Board. There is no publicly numbered form for this benefit, which is why it has to be collected in person.
4. Fill the format and attach the mandatory documents, self-attested where required, principally your identity proof and your registration details.
5. Submit the application to the Member Secretary, BOCW Welfare Board, and keep the acknowledgement.
6. Collect the items at the distribution point or camp notified by the Board, carrying your registration card for identification.

Where do you apply?

The Board works out of three district offices:

• Dadra and Nagar Haveli: 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.

Workers usually deal with the office of the district where the site is located, which is also where the registration was created.

How do you check your beneficiary status?

The Board's website carries a beneficiary lookup on each welfare scheme page. Open bocwddd.in, go to Welfare Schemes, open any scheme page for your district, select the location of your BOCW registration — DNH, Daman or Diu, and enter your BOCW Registration No. in the search box. The record returned tells you whether your registration is live. If it is not, no welfare scheme of the Board, including this one, will be sanctioned.

What else does registration unlock?

The point of this scheme is registration, so it is worth knowing what registration actually buys. The Board's own welfare-scheme list for the union territory includes maternity benefit, a grant for the purchase of tools and protective gear, assistance for the construction of a residential house, ex-gratia for disability, medical assistance and wage loss, financial assistance for education, marriage assistance, a pension scheme, funeral assistance and ex-gratia for death. Daman and Diu additionally list skill development and financial assistance for surgery, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli lists a bus pass. Each of these has its own numbered form and its own conditions, but every one of them starts from the same registration number that this scheme is designed to get you.

Common reasons applications fail, and the fix

• No proof of the 90 days of work. Ask the contractor or site engineer for a written statement of days worked and attach it to the registration form.
• Age proof missing or unattested. The Board asks specifically for an attested copy; an unattested photocopy is commonly returned.
• Address proof from outside the union territory. Migrant workers should produce a locally issued document or update the address on an existing one.
• Registration fee receipt not attached. The fee is small but the proof of payment is a listed requirement.
• Registration lapsed. Renew before applying for any benefit.
• Approaching the wrong office. Apply where your registration sits, not where you happen to be working this month.

Key dates, cost and grievance route

Promoting Registration for the Construction Workers has no fixed last date. Registration and welfare applications are accepted through the year, and distribution happens in rounds notified by the Board. The only money that lawfully changes hands is the registration fee of not more than Rs 50. The mat, blanket and mosquito net themselves are free.

Grievances go first to the Labour and Employment Office of your district, in person or by email at labour-dnh@nic.in for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and then to the Member Secretary of the BOCW Welfare Board. No agent, contractor or middleman is authorised to charge a construction worker for registration or for the distribution of these items.