Natural Death Benefit for Registered Construction Workers (Delhi BOCW)

What is the Delhi BOCW Natural Death Benefit?

Natural Death Benefit is a scheme of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (DBOCWWB), the statutory welfare board under the Labour Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. According to the board's welfare schemes page, where a registered worker dies of natural causes, the nominees or dependants receive Rs 1,00,000 under Rule 278 of the Delhi BOCW Rules.

The board pays a further Rs 10,000 as funeral assistance under Rule 277 on the death of any registered member, regardless of cause. The two are claimed together and are the reason a family should go to the board office once, with both papers ready, rather than twice.

Natural Death Benefit is the quieter half of the board's death cover. Accidental death on a site attracts attention and a police file; a mason who dies at 55 of a heart attack, of tuberculosis, of kidney failure or of any ordinary illness leaves a family with no employer, no gratuity and no insurance. Rule 278 gives that family Rs 1,00,000 out of the fund built from the 1 per cent cess on construction cost in Delhi.

Key features

• Rs 1,00,000 to nominees or dependants where death is from natural causes.
• Rs 10,000 funeral assistance under Rule 277, paid separately.
• Credited by Direct Benefit Transfer into the nominee's Aadhaar-seeded account.
• Claimed on Form No. XXXVIII, the common death benefits form.
• Accidental death during employment is paid at the higher rate of Rs 2,00,000 under the same rule.

Who is eligible for the natural death benefit?

The claim can be made if:

• The deceased was a registered member of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board with membership live on the date of death.
• The death was from natural causes, illness, organ failure, age-related decline, or any cause that is not an accident.
• You are the nominee recorded in the worker's registration, or a dependant where no nominee was named.
• You hold an active, Aadhaar-seeded bank account for the DBT credit.

You cannot apply if:

• The worker was never registered with the board. Registration required the worker to be aged 18 to 60 with at least 90 days of building or construction work in the preceding 12 months, certified by a contractor, employer or a registered construction trade union. Registration cannot be done after death.
• The death was accidental during employment. That claim is still valid, but at Rs 2,00,000, and it needs the post-mortem report and FIR.
• You are neither nominee nor dependant. An employer, contractor, landlord or neighbour cannot receive the money, though they may help the family file.
• The worker's membership had lapsed for unpaid subscription and cannot be regularised.
• The deceased was a contractor or employer, not a wage-earning construction worker.

Families should also know that the board's payment is independent of anything owed by the employer. Claiming Rs 1,00,000 here does not cancel any wages, provident fund or gratuity due from a contractor.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Delhi BOCW natural death benefit

1. Register the death with the municipal corporation and collect the death certificate. Nothing moves without it, and getting it late is the commonest cause of delay in these claims.
2. Find the worker's registration card and note the registration number. If the card is missing, the board can trace the record from the worker's name, father's name and year of registration.
3. Download Form No. XXXVIII: Death Benefits (Natural or Accident) under Rule 278 to from the Forms section of bocw.delhi.gov.in, or collect it from the board office, and pick up the Rule 277 funeral assistance claim at the same time.
4. Fill the form in the nominee's name with the worker's registration number, date and cause of death, and the nominee's bank details; attach the death certificate, registration card copy, Aadhaar and passbook copy.
5. Submit online through edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in under DBOCWWB services, or in person at A-Wing, 7th Floor, Vikas Bhavan-II, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, and keep the acknowledgement or application number.
6. Follow up on 011-23813773 or 011-23813845, or through the ward Shramik Mitra, until the sanction is issued and the DBT credit appears in the passbook.

How to apply offline

1. Call the Shramik Mitra assigned to your ward. Under the Delhi Shramik Mitra Scheme launched on 9 November 2021, about 800 Shramik Mitras, three to four per ward — help families of construction workers complete exactly these forms at no charge.
2. Carry Form No. XXXVIII, the death certificate, the worker's registration card, and the nominee's Aadhaar and bank passbook to the board office in Civil Lines.
3. Submit at the counter, collect a dated receipt, and file the Rs 10,000 funeral assistance claim in the same visit.

How much is paid, and what else can the family claim?

Natural Death Benefit is Rs 1,00,000, paid once by DBT to the nominee. Funeral assistance of Rs 10,000 under Rule 277 is separate and usually settles faster, because it needs only the death certificate and the registration card.

A family should check the rest of the board's list before closing the file:

• Family pension under Rule 283 to 50 per cent of the pension the member was drawing, or Rs 1,500 a month, whichever is higher, for the surviving spouse of a pensioner.
• Education allowance under Rule 281 for the children, Rs 500 a month in classes I to VIII, Rs 700 in IX and X, Rs 1,000 in XI and XII, Rs 3,000 for graduation, Rs 4,000 for ITI courses, Rs 5,000 for a three-year polytechnic and Rs 10,000 a month for technical, engineering, medical or MBA courses.
• Marriage assistance under Rule 282 to Rs 51,000 for a daughter and Rs 35,000 for a son, where three years of continuous membership existed.

How to check the claim status

1. Log in to edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in with the citizen account used to file the claim and open Track your application.
2. For an offline claim, quote the acknowledgement number when you call the board on 011-23813773 or 011-23813845.
3. Once sanctioned, confirm the credit in the nominee's bank passbook. The board pays by DBT only.

Common reasons natural death claims are rejected

• No nominee recorded at registration, forcing the family to produce a legal heir or succession certificate first.
• Lapsed membership, because the Rs 20 annual subscription was not paid in the years before death.
• Name mismatch between the death certificate, the registration card and the nominee's Aadhaar. Construction workers frequently use a shortened name at sites, and this trips up more claims than any medical question.
• Nominee's bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT transfer fails even after sanction.
• Wrong form. Form XXXVIII is for death benefits; Form XXXV is pension and Form XXXIX is disability pension.
• Cause of death unclear, where the claim is filed as natural but the record suggests an accident, or the reverse. Since the accidental rate is double, the board scrutinises this carefully.
• Registration number not traceable because the card is lost and no other detail is supplied.

A returned claim should be corrected and resubmitted against the original application number so the family does not lose its place in the queue.

Key dates and current position

Natural Death Benefit is open all year with no application window and no announced last date. File as soon as the death certificate is in hand. Registration with the board had to be completed while the worker was alive, aged under 60 and still in construction work, so there is no route for the family of an unregistered worker, which is the strongest argument for registering early and keeping the Rs 20 subscription current.

How to raise a grievance

• Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board: 011-23813773 or 011-23813845.
• Email: bocwhq.del@gmail.com
• Office: A-Wing, 7th Floor, Vikas Bhavan-II, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054.
• Shramik Mitra in your ward, for free assistance with forms and follow-up.
• Labour Department, GNCTD, for escalation beyond the board.

No payment is due to any agent for a death claim. The board's only official charges are Rs 5 for registration and Rs 20 as the annual subscription, and no official will ask a family for an OTP or a bank password.