Medical Assistance for Registered Construction Workers (Delhi Bhawan Nirman Shramik Swasthya Yojana)

What is the Delhi construction workers' medical assistance benefit?

Medical Assistance is a welfare benefit of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board set up under Section 18(1) of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1996 to look after, in the board's own words, the "safety, health & welfare of larger number of workers employed in construction sector".

According to the board's welfare schemes page, medical assistance under Rule 280 pays up to Rs 10,000 where a registered construction worker is hospitalised for 5 days or more because of an accident or a disease. Workers and field staff in Delhi commonly refer to the board's health benefits together as the Bhawan Nirman Shramik Swasthya Yojana, the Hindi phrase for the construction workers' health scheme.

The amount is modest and it is a reimbursement, not an insurance cover. Its purpose is to absorb the incidental cost of a hospital stay, the medicines, tests, transport and the lost days, for a worker who has no paid sick leave.

How it sits alongside the 2026 cashless scheme. On 23 June 2026 the Delhi Cabinet approved the Delhi Building and Construction Workers Health Scheme, a cashless hospitalisation scheme covering up to Rs 2 lakh per worker and Rs 10 lakh per family. The two are different instruments from the same board, and both depend on the same thing: a live registration.

Who can claim medical assistance from the Delhi BOCW board?

You can claim if:

• You are registered with the Delhi BOCW Welfare Board and hold a valid registration card.
• Your Rs 20 annual subscription was paid and your membership was live on the date of hospitalisation.
• You were hospitalised for 5 days or more due to an accident or a disease.
• You can produce the discharge summary, medical certificate and bills for the treatment.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You are not registered with the Delhi board. There is no benefit for an unregistered construction worker, regardless of years worked.
• Your membership had lapsed on the date of hospitalisation because the annual subscription was not paid.
• The hospital stay was shorter than 5 days, which does not meet the published condition for this benefit.
• You are registered with another state's construction workers welfare board rather than Delhi's.
• You are an office employee or supervisor rather than a building or other construction worker as defined in the 1996 Act.

Registration itself requires the worker to be aged 18 to 60 and to have been engaged in construction work for not less than 90 days in the preceding 12 months.

What documents are required?

How to apply for medical assistance

1. Complete the hospital treatment first and collect the discharge summary, the doctor's certificate and the original bills before starting the claim. The benefit is a reimbursement, so the paperwork comes from the hospital.
2. Check that your registration is live on the date of admission. If the annual subscription lapsed, renew it, but understand that a renewal made after the hospitalisation does not revive cover for that episode.
3. Log in to edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in with your citizen credentials and open the Labour Department services list for the Delhi BOCW Welfare Board.
4. Select the medical assistance claim service and fill in your registration number, the hospital name, the admission and discharge dates, and the amount claimed.
5. Upload the discharge summary, medical certificate, bills, registration card, Aadhaar and bank passbook as scanned copies.
6. Submit the claim and save the application number shown on the screen. It is the only way to track the claim later.
7. Track the claim through the Track Your Application option on the e-District portal, and follow up with the board if it stays pending.

How to apply offline

1. Visit the board office at A-Wing, 7th Floor, Vikas Bhavan-II, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054.
2. Collect and fill the prescribed claim form for medical assistance, which is also downloadable from the forms page on bocw.delhi.gov.in.
3. Attach the discharge summary, medical certificate, original bills, registration card copy, Aadhaar copy and bank passbook copy.
4. Submit at the counter and collect a dated acknowledgement with the diary number.

The offline route is the practical one for workers who do not have scanned documents or an e-District login, and the board's staff enter the claim into the system.

What the wider health benefit set covers

Medical assistance is one item in a list. A registered Delhi construction worker can also claim, according to the board's welfare schemes page:

• Disability pension of Rs 3,000 a month for permanent disability, including paralysis, leprosy, tuberculosis and accident cases.
• Disability ex-gratia of Rs 1,00,000 in permanent disability cases.
• Maternity benefit of Rs 30,000, for up to two children, to registered women members and to wives of registered members.
• Accidental death benefit of Rs 2,00,000 where death occurs during employment.
• Normal death benefit of Rs 1,00,000 on the death of any member.
• Funeral assistance of Rs 10,000.

Beyond health, the board runs pension of Rs 3,000 a month after 60, marriage assistance of Rs 35,000 to Rs 51,000, educational assistance of Rs 500 to Rs 10,000 a month depending on the level of study, a tool loan of Rs 20,000 and a tool grant of Rs 5,000 every five years, a housing advance of Rs 3,00,000, and vocational training.

How to register and stay registered

1. Apply on edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in under the Labour Department services.
2. Meet the eligibility test: age 18 to 60, and 90 days of construction work in the preceding 12 months.
3. Have the form verified by the contractor, employer or a registered construction-sector trade union. Trade union verification is the fallback when a contractor refuses.
4. Pay Rs 25 in total — a Rs 5 registration fee and a Rs 20 annual subscription.
5. Renew the Rs 20 subscription every year through the same portal. The board publishes step-by-step guides with screenshots for both registration and renewal.

Renewal is the step most workers miss, and a lapsed subscription is the most common reason an otherwise valid claim is rejected.

Why medical assistance claims get rejected

• Hospital stay under 5 days, which fails the core condition.
• Lapsed subscription on the date of admission.
• Discharge summary missing the dates, so the 5-day condition cannot be verified. Ask the hospital to re-issue it with dates written clearly.
• Bills in someone else's name, for example a relative who paid at the counter.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, which blocks the DBT credit even after sanction.
• Name mismatch between the registration card, Aadhaar and the hospital record.

Most of these are curable. Fix the document and file the claim again rather than abandoning it.

Where to complain or get help

• Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, A-Wing, 7th Floor, Vikas Bhavan-II, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054.
• Phone: 011-23813773 and 011-23813845.
• Email: bocwhq.del@gmail.com.
• e-District Delhi at edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in for claim filing, renewal and status tracking.
• Labour Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, for escalation.

Registration costs Rs 25 and claims are free to file. No contractor or agent may charge a construction worker to register, renew or claim any benefit of the board.

How to check your application status

A medical assistance claim filed through e-District Delhi does not get approved instantly, so it is worth knowing exactly where to look while it is pending.

Online, through e-District Delhi:

1. Go to edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in and open Track Your Application (this option does not need a login).
2. Enter the application/reference number you were given when you submitted the claim. This number was shown on screen at submission and is also usually sent by SMS to the registered mobile number, so check your messages if you did not note it down.
3. The status will show as one of the standard e-District stages, such as submitted, under verification at the Labour Department or board office, sent back for correction, sanctioned, or payment released by DBT.
4. If the status shows "sent back" or "objection raised," it means a document was found incomplete or unclear. Log back in, check the remarks, and re-upload the corrected document rather than filing a fresh claim.
5. If the status has stayed at "under verification" for several weeks with no change, that is the point to follow up directly rather than keep checking the portal.

If you applied offline at the board office:

1. Keep the dated acknowledgement slip with the diary number given at the counter when you submitted the claim form. This is your only proof of submission and the reference for any follow-up.
2. Call the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board on 011-23813773 or 011-23813845, quote the diary number, and ask for the claim status.
3. You can also visit the board office in person at A-Wing, 7th Floor, Vikas Bhavan-II, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054 and ask the counter staff to look up the diary number in the register.
4. Email bocwhq.del@gmail.com with the diary number and registration number if a phone call or visit is not practical, and keep a copy of the email as a record of having followed up.

Once a claim is sanctioned, the amount is paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the bank account linked to the registration. If the status shows "sanctioned" but the money has not arrived after a reasonable interval, the usual cause is an Aadhaar-seeding mismatch on the bank account rather than a problem with the claim itself, and this is best raised with the bank as well as the board.