Construction Workers Night Shelter Scheme (MPBOCWWB)

What is the Construction Workers Night Shelter Scheme?

The Construction Workers Night Shelter Scheme is a scheme of the Madhya Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan Evam Anya Sanniraman Karmakar Kalyan Mandal; under the state Labour Department. The scheme funds night shelters, commonly called rain baseras, in urban areas of Madhya Pradesh for construction workers who have no fixed accommodation.

The problem the scheme addresses is specific to the construction trade. A large part of Madhya Pradesh's construction workforce is migrant. Workers gather each morning at labour chowks in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain and every district town, take a day's work from whoever hires them, and have nowhere to sleep at night except pavements, incomplete buildings and the site itself. Winter nights in Madhya Pradesh are cold enough for this to be a life-safety issue, not a comfort issue.

The Board is a statutory body constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and is funded from a cess of 1 per cent of construction cost under the companion Cess Act of 1996. Building and running shelters is one of the permitted welfare uses of that fund.

Who benefits, and who cannot apply?

This is an infrastructure scheme, not a cash scheme. Understanding that distinction saves a wasted trip to the labour office.

Who benefits:

• Construction workers in urban Madhya Pradesh who have no permanent accommodation, including migrant workers from other districts and states.
• Registered construction workers in particular, who get priority where a shelter is at capacity.
• Women construction workers, for whom shelters are expected to provide separate and secure space.

Who cannot apply:

• An individual worker cannot apply for a personal benefit under this scheme. There is no application form, no sanction letter and no bank transfer for a worker. Use of a shelter is by walking in.
• Rural areas are outside the scheme's scope. Night shelters are an urban intervention, tied to labour chowks and city construction sites.
• A private contractor or builder is not eligible for a grant to build accommodation for their own labour. Under the 1996 Act, providing temporary accommodation on a site is already the employer's legal duty on projects above the threshold, and the Board's fund is not there to subsidise that duty.

How does an urban local body apply for a night shelter?

The real application route runs through the municipal corporation, municipality or nagar parishad, not through workers. A ward councillor, a workers' union or a group of workers who want a shelter in their area should push the urban local body to file the proposal.

1. Identify the need and the site. The urban local body identifies a location, near a labour chowk, a bus stand or a construction cluster — and confirms that the land is government-owned and free of encumbrance.
2. Prepare a detailed project report with a building plan and cost estimate vetted by the competent engineering authority, including toilets, water, lighting and separate space for women.
3. Submit the proposal to the Madhya Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board through the district labour office and the collector, with a resolution of the council and the land availability certificate.
4. Obtain the Board's sanction, which specifies the sanctioned cost, the release schedule and the agency responsible for running the shelter after completion.
5. Build and hand over, then run the shelter with a night register, a caretaker and free entry for construction workers.

What facilities should a shelter provide?

A construction worker night shelter is expected to offer the basic standard of a municipal rain basera:

• Covered sleeping space with cots or mattresses and blankets in winter.
• Drinking water and toilets and bathing facilities.
• Lighting and electricity, and fans where provided.
• Separate, lockable space for women workers and families.
• A caretaker and a night register recording who stays, for safety and headcount.

Standards vary between shelters and between urban local bodies. Where a shelter is locked, filthy or unstaffed, the remedy is a complaint to the urban local body, not a complaint to the Welfare Board, because day-to-day running sits with the local body.

How does this connect to the Board's other benefits?

Using a night shelter needs no card, but registration with the Board is worth completing anyway. Registration under Section 12 of the 1996 Act is open to a construction worker aged 18 to 60 who has worked at least 90 days in construction in the preceding twelve months. In Madhya Pradesh the application is filed with the Gram Panchayat in rural areas or the urban local body in towns, and the card is issued through the district labour office.

A live registration card is what makes a worker eligible for the Board's cash and service benefits, accident and death assistance, maternity help, children's education support, pension after 60, tool purchase subsidy and free skill training. A worker sleeping in a shelter is, by definition, exactly the worker those schemes were designed for, and shelter staff are often the easiest point at which to get a worker registered.

Registered workers in Madhya Pradesh are also linked to the state's Mukhyamantri Jan Kalyan (Sambal) social security framework for unorganised workers, which carries its own funeral, death and disability assistance.

Where to get help

• Madhya Pradesh Labour Department worker helpline: 18002338888
• Madhya Pradesh CM Helpline: 181
• Your municipal corporation, municipality or nagar parishad, for shelter location, condition and complaints
• District labour office (Shram Padadhikari), for construction worker registration
• Labour Department portal: labour.mp.gov.in

Staying in a construction worker night shelter is free. No one may charge a worker for a bed, and no worker should be refused entry for not carrying a card.