OB&OCWWB Grant of Funeral Expenses (Odisha)

What is the OB&OCWWB Grant of Funeral Expenses?

The Grant of Funeral Expenses is a one-time payment of Rs 5,000 made by the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board to the nominee or legal heir of a registered construction worker who has died. The Board, constituted on 3 January 2004 under Section 18 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, functions under the Labour & Employees State Insurance (ESI) Department, Government of Odisha, with the Labour Commissioner as Member Secretary and chief executive officer.

The legal basis is rule 278-A of the Orissa Building and Other Construction Workers' (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2002. That rule was inserted by the Amendment Rules of 2010 at Rs 1,800, raised to Rs 5,000 by the Amendment Rules of 2014 notified in Odisha Gazette No. 449 of 1 March 2014, and re-enacted at Rs 5,000 by Gazette Notification No. 933 of 30 May 2019. The current text reads that the Board shall extend an amount of Rs 5,000 as funeral assistance to the nominee or legal heir of the deceased beneficiary, in case of death of a registered beneficiary.

Money for the grant comes from the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Fund, built from the 1 per cent cess collected on construction works across the state under rule 263.

The purpose of the grant is narrow and immediate: to put cash in the family's hands for the last rites without waiting for the larger death benefit to be processed. It is listed on the Board's own portal at nirmanshramik.odisha.gov.in as "Grant of Funeral expenses", one of five schemes shown there alongside maternity benefit, marriage assistance, death benefit and education assistance.

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

Funeral assistance is a flat Rs 5,000, paid once, to one claimant. There is no variation by district, cause of death or family size.

Families should claim the death benefit separately, because rule 271 as amended in 2019 is a much larger payment:

• Rs 2,00,000 to the nominees for normal death of a registered beneficiary.
• Rs 4,00,000 where death was caused by an accident during the course of employment.

Rule 271 also sets the rules the family will meet in practice. Payment of death benefit must be made available within 60 days of the death application. Where there are multiple nominees, the benefit is paid to all of them. Where the nominee is a minor, the amount may be sanctioned on condition that it is not withdrawn until the nominee attains majority, except in an exigency with the approval of the Member Secretary of the Board. And where the Board has taken a Group Insurance Scheme for registered beneficiaries under rule 274, the death benefit under rule 271 may not be applicable.

Who is eligible for funeral assistance in Odisha?

A claimant can apply where all of these hold.

1. The deceased was a registered beneficiary of OB&OCWWB holding a Form XXVIII identity card, registered between 18 and 60 years of age after at least 90 days of building or other construction work in the preceding 12 months.
2. The deceased's membership had not ceased on the date of death, that is, the Rs 50 annual contribution had not been in default for three continuous years under rule 267(3).
3. The claimant is the nominee recorded in Form XXXI, or, where no nomination exists, a legal heir with a legal heir certificate from the competent authority.
4. Death is proved by a death certificate and a certificate on natural or accidental death from a Government doctor not below the rank of Assistant Surgeon.

The following cannot apply.

• Families of construction workers who were never registered with the Board. Registration is the gateway to every OB&OCWWB benefit and cannot be created after death.
• Families where the worker's membership had ceased for three continuous years of contribution default and was never resumed.
• A person who is neither the nominee nor a legal heir. Under rule 265(2A) the nominee means the spouse; if the spouse is not living, all minor children; and if there is neither, the parents.
• One heir acting alone where there are several. In that case an affidavit from all legal heirs is required naming who will receive the assistance on their behalf.
• Anyone claiming a second funeral grant for the same deceased worker; the grant is once per death.

How to apply for the funeral expenses grant

1. Register the death and get the medical certificate. Obtain the death certificate from the Registrar of Births and Deaths, and a certificate on whether the death was natural or accidental from a Government doctor not below the rank of Assistant Surgeon.
2. Collect the deceased worker's papers. Take the original Form XXVIII identity card, the registration number, and the latest annual contribution receipt. Where the death was accidental on a construction site, also collect the police FIR, the postmortem report and an inquiry report from a Labour official not below the rank of Assistant Labour Officer.
3. Establish who claims. If a nomination in Form XXXI exists, the nominee applies. If not, obtain a legal heir certificate, and where there are multiple heirs, an affidavit from all of them naming the receiver.
4. File the claim. Apply online through nirmanshramik.odisha.gov.in, or submit Form XLIII, the Application for Grant of Funeral Expenses under rule 278-A, at the office of the District Labour Officer of the district where the deceased was registered. Rule 285-A requires the form to be available in Odia and an Odia-filled form is valid.
5. File the death benefit claim at the same time. Death benefit is claimed in Form XXXV under rule 271, and filing both together avoids repeating the same document set.
6. Track and collect. Use the Application Tracking link on the portal home page, and keep the claimant's bank passbook copy ready since the grant is credited directly.

How do I check the status of the claim?

Application Tracking on nirmanshramik.odisha.gov.in shows the stage of a submitted claim against its reference number. Because funeral assistance is small and usually rides alongside the death benefit file, the District Labour Office is often the faster source of a real answer on where the file sits. Rule 271 gives a hard 60-day outer limit for the death benefit, so a funeral claim still pending well past that mark is worth escalating.

Why do funeral claims get rejected, and how do I fix it?

Lapsed membership is the biggest cause. Rule 267 requires Rs 50 a year, and three continuous years of default ends the membership. Families sometimes discover this only after a death. If the default is shorter than three years, arrears can be cleared and the membership treated as live.

No nomination and no legal heir certificate. Where Form XXXI was never filed, the Board needs a legal heir certificate from the competent authority before it can pay anyone. Applying for that certificate early saves weeks.

Multiple heirs without an affidavit. The rule is explicit: with more than one legal heir, an affidavit from all of them is required stating who will receive the assistance.

Missing accident documentation. For a site death, all four documents — death certificate, police FIR, postmortem report and Labour official's inquiry report, are prescribed, and a partial set stalls the file.

Bank details that do not match. The grant goes to the claimant's own account, so an account in a different name or an incorrect IFSC will fail the transfer even after sanction.

What are the key dates and where do I complain?

No annual application window applies to funeral assistance; the claim is filed after death occurs. The only recurring date that matters is the Rs 50 annual contribution, which runs on the financial year defined in rule 248(g) and may be paid in advance at any time in the year through the Pay Annual Contribution link on the portal. Keeping it current is the single best thing a construction worker's family can do to protect this benefit.

For grievances, the first stop is the District Labour Officer, who registers beneficiaries and processes claims. Above that is the Labour Commissioner, Odisha, Member Secretary of the Board. Write to the Odisha Building & Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board, Office of the Labour Commissioner, Unit-3, Kharavel Nagar, Bhubaneswar; telephone 0674-3120552; email obocwwboard@yahoo.com. The administrative department is Labour & ESI, Government of Odisha, at labour.odisha.gov.in.