Cash Award for SSLC Toppers, Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board

What is the MBOCWWB Cash Award?

The Cash Award of the Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (MBOCWWB) is an annual merit prize for the children of registered construction workers who score the highest marks in the SSLC examination. The Board is a statutory body under the Labour Department, Government of Meghalaya, based at Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001, and is commonly called the BOCW Board in the state.

According to the Board's schemes page, the rule provides a cash award to three male and three female children each of the beneficiaries in each district, at the rate of Rs 1,000, Rs 750 and Rs 500, to those who score the highest marks in SSLC. SSLC is the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination, the Class 10 board examination conducted in Meghalaya by the Meghalaya Board of School Education.

The structure is worth reading carefully because it defines a very small, well-defined pool. The comparison is within a district, not across the state, and boys and girls are ranked separately. Six children per district receive an award each year: three boys taking Rs 1,000, Rs 750 and Rs 500, and three girls taking the same three amounts. Across Meghalaya's 12 districts, that is a small annual cohort.

The award is funded from the Board's welfare fund, which is built from the cess levied on construction works in the state together with the members' own subscriptions of Rs 5 a month. It is a recognition payment rather than a scholarship: it is paid once, on merit, and carries no obligation to continue studying. Families looking for continuing support should look at the Board's separate educational assistance scheme, which offers pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for specified courses to children of registered members.

Who is eligible for the MBOCWWB Cash Award?

A student is eligible if:

• The student is the son or daughter of a registered beneficiary of the MBOCWWB fund.
• The parent's registration is live, a current identity card issued by the Deputy Labour Commissioner and the Rs 5 monthly subscription paid up to date.
• The student appeared in the SSLC examination and is among the three highest-scoring boys or three highest-scoring girls in his or her district within the pool of registered workers' children.

The parent's registration is the real gate. Under the Board's enrolment rules a construction worker must be between 18 and 60 years of age and must have completed at least 90 days of construction work in the preceding 12 months, inside Meghalaya or outside it. Days worked under MGNREGA count towards the 90 days when combined with construction work, and migrant workers from Meghalaya employed in other states may register with the Meghalaya Board. Registration costs a one-time Rs 10 charge with a Rs 5 monthly subscription thereafter.

A student is not eligible, or cannot apply, if:

• The parent is not registered with the MBOCWWB. There is no route for a child of an unregistered construction worker, and a parent cannot register retrospectively to cover a result already declared.
• The parent's registration has lapsed through unpaid subscriptions, until it is regularised.
• The parent is enrolled in another welfare fund, which contradicts the declaration signed at MBOCWWB registration.
• The student's marks do not place them in the top three of their gender group in their district within the eligible pool. There is no participation award; the scheme is strictly rank-based.
• The examination taken was not the SSLC. The rule names SSLC specifically.

What documents are required for the cash award?

The Board's stated requirement is to file Form No. XLII with a school clearance certificate and verified credentials. In practice "verified credentials" means the marksheet attested by the school, together with the papers that connect the student to a live registered member, the parent's identity card, subscription record and the relationship proof.

How to apply for the MBOCWWB Cash Award

1. Wait for the SSLC results to be declared, since the entire award turns on the marks obtained.
2. Check the parent's registration is live — identity card current, Rs 5 monthly subscription paid up. Clear any arrears at the district labour office before filing.
3. Collect Form No. XLII from the office of the Deputy Labour Commissioner, your district labour office, or the Board's website.
4. Get the school clearance certificate and an attested copy of the SSLC marksheet from the school.
5. Fill in the form with the parent's registration number, the student's name, roll number, marks obtained and district, and the bank account details.
6. Attach the supporting papers, marksheet, school clearance certificate, parent's identity card copy, subscription receipt and passbook, relationship proof and the first page of the bank passbook.
7. Submit the claim to the Secretary of the Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001, or through the district labour office.
8. Keep the acknowledgement with the parent's registration number noted on it.

To claim online instead, open the BOCW Online Portal linked from megbocwwb.gov.in and select cash awards from the list of benefits available for online application. The portal supports account creation and password recovery by email or phone OTP, and also handles online applications for death benefit, disability pension, educational scholarships, family pension, funeral benefit, instrument grants, maternity support, marriage assistance, medical benefit and welfare pension.

How do you check the status of a cash award claim?

The Board's online portal does not advertise a self-service status tracker for submitted claims. Because the award is decided by comparison across a district, the district labour office is the most useful place to ask:

• Visit the district labour office, where the Deputy Labour Commissioner acts as Registering Officer and holds the local beneficiary register.
• Call the Board on 0364 2501224 with the parent's registration number and the date of submission.
• Email mbocwwb-meg[at]gov[dot]in with the same details.

Selection cannot be confirmed until all claims from the district have been received and ranked, so an early enquiry will usually be told the file is under comparison rather than under objection.

Why cash award claims get rejected, and how to fix them

• Parent's subscription in arrears. The most common cause. Pay the outstanding Rs 5 monthly contributions and attach a fresh receipt.
• Marks below the district cut-off. Not a defect in the file, the scheme simply funds three boys and three girls per district. A student in this position should look instead at the Board's post-matric educational scholarship, which is not rank-capped in the same way.
• No school clearance certificate. The Board names it explicitly; a marksheet alone is not enough.
• Relationship not established. Where the child is not the nominee in the parent's Form XXXI, attach the birth certificate, or a certificate from the local headman or village authority confirming parentage.
• Name mismatch between the marksheet, the parent's identity card and the bank passbook. Get the spelling corrected at source or explain the variation in writing.
• Lapsed parent identity card. Renew it with the Deputy Labour Commissioner before the claim is filed.

What are the key dates for the cash award?

The Cash Award runs on an annual cycle keyed to the SSLC results, not to a fixed calendar date. The Board does not publish a closing date on its schemes page, so the safe practice is to file Form No. XLII as soon as the marksheet is in hand and to confirm the local cut-off with the district labour office in the same visit. Filing late risks the district comparison having already been completed for that year.

The dates that matter on the parent's side are continuous rather than annual: registration before the age of 60, and the Rs 5 monthly subscription kept current without gaps. A break in subscriptions in the year the child sits SSLC is enough to put an otherwise deserving claim at risk.

Where do you raise a grievance?

• Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001
• Phone: 0364 2501224
• Email: mbocwwb-meg[at]gov[dot]in
• Deputy Labour Commissioner / district labour office, the Registering Officer for beneficiaries
• Labour Department, Government of Meghalaya (meglabour.gov.in), the administrative department above the Board

The Board publishes RTI provisions on its website, which is the written route where a family believes a ranking or a rejection was wrong. No agent or middleman may charge a fee for filing a cash award claim; the only money the scheme involves is the Rs 10 registration charge and the Rs 5 monthly subscription paid by the worker.