Anath Pension Yojana (Jharkhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board)

What is Anath Pension Yojana?

Anath Pension Yojana is one of the welfare schemes run by the Jharkhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act and administered by the state Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development. The scheme's purpose is narrow and specific: when a registered construction worker or a board pensioner dies, the scheme provides a recurring monthly pension to the children left behind, so long as they are below 18 years of age.

According to the board's scheme details published on the Shramadhan portal, the orphan pension is payable at the same rate as family pension, and is divided equally among the children under 18 years. The board fixes family pension at 50 per cent of the pension amount, subject to a ceiling of Rs 500 a month.

To read that figure properly it helps to know the board's main pension. A registered worker who has contributed to the board for 30 years receives Rs 1,000 a month as pension on completing 60 years of age. Family pension, and therefore orphan pension; is half of that, capped at Rs 500 a month.

The amount is modest. Its value lies in being certain, monthly and independent of any other assistance the family receives, and in sitting alongside the board's much larger one-time death benefits.

Who is eligible for Anath Pension Yojana?

A child can receive the pension if:

• The parent was a registered beneficiary or pensioner of the Jharkhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board at the time of death.
• The child is below 18 years of age.
• The claim is filed with proof of the parent's death and the child's age through a guardian.

A child cannot apply or is not eligible if:

• The parent was a construction worker but was never registered with the board. Board schemes are closed to unregistered workers, however long they worked in construction. Registration is open to construction workers aged 18 to 60 and is done free through the Shramadhan portal or the district labour office.
• The child has turned 18. The share of a child who reaches 18 stops from that point.
• The parent's board membership had lapsed because the annual contribution was not paid. The board runs a re-contribution facility on the Shramadhan portal precisely so that a lapsed member can restore standing, and it is worth using while the worker is alive rather than discovering the lapse at claim time.
• The claim relates to a worker in another state. The Jharkhand board pays only against its own registrations.

There is no caste, income or gender condition attached to the orphan pension.

How much does Anath Pension Yojana pay?

The division rule matters in practice. If three children below 18 survive the worker, they share the family-pension amount equally rather than each receiving it. As the eldest turns 18, the remaining children continue to share the same total.

What else does the board pay when a registered worker dies?

Families often confuse the orphan pension with the board's death benefits. They are separate schemes and can be claimed together:

• Jharkhand Nirman Karmakar Mrityu/Durghatana Sahayata Yojana: Rs 5,00,000 for death in an accident, Rs 3,00,000 for total permanent disability, Rs 2,00,000 for partial permanent disability, and Rs 1,00,000 for natural death, for registered workers aged 18 to 60.
• Antyeshti Sahayata Yojana: Rs 10,000 towards funeral costs on the death of a registered beneficiary.
• Samekit Aam Aadmi Bima Sahayata Yojana: benefits up to Rs 4,00,000 on death, accident and other contingencies, with a Shiksha Sahyog scholarship for children studying in classes 9 to 12.
• Medhavi Putra/Putri Chhatravritti Yojana: scholarships of Rs 5,000 for classes 1 to 8, Rs 10,000 for classes 9 to 12 and intermediate, Rs 20,000 for graduate and postgraduate courses including diplomas, and Rs 50,000 for medical and engineering degrees, for two meritorious children of a beneficiary.

A child receiving the orphan pension is usually also eligible for the scholarship schemes, and the two should be applied for together.

How to apply for Anath Pension Yojana

1. Collect the base documents first — the death certificate of the registered worker or pensioner, the board registration number or pension payment order, and proof of age for each child.
2. Open shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in and verify the deceased worker's record using the "Verify Worker Details" option with the application or registration number and the registered mobile number. Confirming that the record is live and contributions are in order saves a rejection later.
3. File the claim, either through the scheme claim route on the Shramadhan portal after logging in with the registered mobile number and OTP, or by submitting the filled scheme form at the district labour office that holds the worker's file. Both routes converge at the same district scrutiny.
4. Attach the children's documents: Aadhaar for each child and the guardian, proof of orphan status, the bank passbook of the account into which the pension is to be paid, and a guardianship certificate where the claimant is not the natural guardian.
5. Track the claim on the portal and follow up with the district labour office. Sanction is issued at district level and payment is made by bank transfer.
6. Report each child turning 18 so the shares are recalculated. Continuing to draw a share after 18 creates a recovery liability.

How to register a construction worker with the board

Anath Pension Yojana rests entirely on the parent being registered, so registration is the step that actually protects a family.

1. Go to shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in and choose the building and construction worker registration route, or visit the district labour office or a Pragya Kendra.
2. Provide Aadhaar, a bank account, a photograph and proof of at least 90 days of construction work in the preceding year, certified by the employer, contractor or the local body as the district office requires.
3. Pay the nominal registration and annual contribution prescribed by the board, and keep the contribution current every year.
4. Use "BOC Worker Re-contribution" on the portal if a year has been missed, before claiming any scheme benefit.

The board's own conditions make the value of continuity clear: the cycle assistance scheme requires a year of membership plus the next year's contribution deposited, the marriage assistance scheme of Rs 30,000 requires three continuous years of contribution, the tool kit scheme becomes payable three months after registration, and the pension requires 30 years of contribution.

Common reasons a claim is rejected

• The worker was not registered, or the registration had lapsed for want of contribution.
• Age proof for the child is missing or inconsistent, so the district office cannot fix the entitlement period.
• Death certificate not produced, or the name on it does not match the board record.
• Bank account not in the child's or guardian's name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so the transfer fails.
• Duplicate claim where family pension has already been sanctioned to a surviving spouse. Family pension and orphan pension are alternatives, not additions.

Where to get help

• Shramadhan technical helpdesk: 7632996057, Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM.
• Online grievance: the grievance module on shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in.
• District labour office of the district where the worker is registered; contact details are published as a PDF on the Shramadhan downloads page.
• Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand, phone 0651-2490514 or 0651-2490956.

Registration with the board and every scheme benefit under it are free. No middleman is authorised to charge a family for filing an orphan pension claim.

How to check your application status

A guardian who has already filed an orphan pension claim can check where it stands in three ways, all built around the same Shramadhan portal that the claim went through.

1. Portal login check. Go to shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in and log in with the registered mobile number and OTP. The claim shows against the worker's registration record, with its current stage: received at the district office, under scrutiny, sanctioned, or paid.
2. Verify Worker Details. If the guardian does not have login access, the "Verify Worker Details" option on the same portal accepts the deceased worker's application or registration number along with the registered mobile number, and returns the record status without needing a full login. This is the same check worth running before filing a claim, and it works just as well afterward to confirm a claim has been logged against the right record.
3. District labour office follow-up. Because sanction for the orphan pension is issued at district level, not centrally, the district labour office that holds the worker's file is the authority that actually knows why a claim is delayed, whether it needs an additional document, or whether it has already been sanctioned and is waiting on the bank transfer. Visiting or calling this office is often faster than waiting on the portal, especially soon after filing when the portal status may not yet have been updated.

If the portal shows no record of the claim at all after a reasonable wait, that usually means the form was filed offline at the district office but has not yet been digitised, or that the worker's own registration record could not be matched, in which case the district office is the only place that can resolve it.

For a general status query that does not resolve at the district office, the Shramadhan technical helpdesk (7632996057, Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM) can check the portal-side record, and the online grievance module on shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in can be used to log a complaint if a sanctioned claim has not been paid within a reasonable time. Keep the claim's application number or the worker's registration number ready before making any of these calls, since the record is looked up by that number rather than by the child's or guardian's name.