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

What is the Jharkhand construction workers Pension Yojana?

Pension Yojana of the Jharkhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board is the old-age pension arm of the welfare package that the Board, under the Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development, offers to registered construction workers. The scheme, listed in Hindi on the Board's own page as पेंशन योजना, answers the question that every daily-wage mason and carpenter eventually faces: what income exists after the body can no longer do site work.

According to the Board's scheme details page on the Shramadhan portal, the terms are stated in two lines. First, the worker must have contributed to the Board for thirty years. Second, on completion of 60 years of age, Rs 1,000 per month is paid as pension.

The Board funds this and its other schemes from the cess collected on construction cost under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996. Establishments registering under the Building and Construction Workers Act pay registration fees on the Shramadhan portal ranging from Rs 145 for sites employing 1 to 49 workers up to Rs 2,900 for sites employing 501 or more, and cess payment is a separate online service on the same portal. That pool is what pays the pension.

Who is eligible for the Board pension?

A worker can claim the pension if:

• The worker is registered with the Jharkhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board as a building worker.
• The worker has contributed to the Board for 30 years without the membership lapsing.
• The worker has completed 60 years of age.
• The worker's Aadhaar, bank account and Board record carry the same name and the account is active for direct transfer.

A person is not eligible and cannot apply if:

• The person is an unregistered construction worker. Board registration is the gate for every scheme, and no scheme benefit is payable without it.
• The contribution record is short of 30 years, however long the person has actually worked on sites.
• The worker has not yet completed 60 years. Age is checked against the official age proof on the Board record, not a self-declaration.
• The applicant is a contractor, employer, supervisor or establishment owner rather than a building worker as defined under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act,

• The membership has lapsed for non-payment and has not been restored through the Board's re-contribution route.

Under the 1996 Act, Board registration itself requires the worker to be between 18 and 60 years of age and to have worked in building or other construction work for at least 90 days in the preceding twelve months. Because 30 years of contribution must be completed by age 60, the practical reading is that a worker needs to be on the Board's rolls by around age 30 for the full old-age pension to be within reach.

What documents are required for the Board pension?

How to apply for the Jharkhand Board pension

1. Open shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in and log in as a construction worker using your registration number or Aadhaar number with the OTP sent to your registered mobile.
2. Check the contribution history on your dashboard and confirm that no year is missing. If a year is missing, use the BOC Worker Re-contribution service and clear it before applying.
3. Open the scheme benefit application for construction workers and select Pension Yojana.
4. Enter your date of birth and upload the age proof, Board registration card, contribution record, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
5. Add nominee details so that family pension can be released without a fresh enquiry later.
6. Submit the form and note the application number on the acknowledgement.
7. Attend the district Labour Office with originals if the verifying officer calls you for document verification.

How to apply offline

1. Visit the district Labour Office or the nearest Pragya Kendra (Common Service Centre) with your Board registration card.
2. Fill the scheme benefit form for construction workers, marking Pension Yojana.
3. Attach self-attested copies of age proof, contribution record, Aadhaar and bank passbook, and hand over the form.
4. Collect a dated receipt with the application number, which you will need for every follow-up.

What the Board's other pension schemes pay

Pension Yojana is one of four linked pension benefits listed by the Board, and workers regularly confuse them:

• Pension Yojana, Rs 1,000 per month, after 30 years of contribution and on completing 60 years of age.
• Disability Pension (Nishaktata Pension) Yojana: Rs 1,000 per month for a registered worker permanently incapacitated by paralysis, leprosy, tuberculosis or an accident, plus a one-time ex-gratia of Rs 10,000. This scheme is not tied to the 30-year rule, because disability does not wait for a contribution calendar.
• Family Pension Yojana — on the death of a pensioner, family members receive 50 per cent of the pension amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 500 per month.
• Orphan Pension Yojana; on the death of a member or pensioner, orphan pension is paid at the same rate as family pension and is divided equally among children below 18 years of age.

Alongside these, the Board runs a marriage assistance benefit of Rs 30,000 after three years of continuous contribution, a maternity benefit of Rs 15,000 for the first two deliveries of a registered woman worker, and a funeral assistance payment of Rs 10,000 on the death of a registered member. A pensioner's family is often entitled to the funeral payment as well as family pension, and the two claims are filed separately.

How to check pension application and payment status

1. Log in to shramadhan.jharkhand.gov.in with your registration number and mobile OTP.
2. Open the application status view and enter the application number from your acknowledgement receipt.
3. Once the pension is sanctioned, check the monthly credit in your bank passbook. Missing credits are usually a bank or life-certificate issue rather than a sanction issue.
4. For anything unresolved, contact the district Labour Office that processed the file, quoting the application number.

Why Board pension claims fail

• Contribution gap. A single unpaid year breaks the unbroken 30-year record and is the most common reason a claim stalls at verification.
• Age proof mismatch. A date of birth on the Board card that differs from Aadhaar has to be corrected before sanction.
• Name mismatch across the Board card, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
• Inactive or dormant bank account, which causes the monthly credit to fail even after sanction.
• Life certificate not submitted after the pension has started, which suspends further payment until it is filed.
• Claim by a person who is not a building worker, for example a supervisor or a contractor's staff.

Help and grievance redressal

• Labour Commissioner, Jharkhand: toll-free 1800 3456 526, Shram Bhawan, Doranda, Ranchi.
• Shramadhan technical helpdesk: 7632996057, Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM.
• Department of Labour, Employment, Training and Skill Development: Nepal House, Doranda, Ranchi 834002, phone (0651) 2490514 and (0651) 2490956.
• Grievance module on the Shramadhan portal, which issues a tracking number and routes the complaint to the district labour machinery.

Registration with the Board and every scheme claim under it are free. No agent can lawfully charge a share of a sanctioned pension.