Building and Other Construction Workers (BOC) Scholarship, Odisha

What is the Building and Other Construction Workers Scholarship?

Building and Other Construction Workers Scholarship: listed on the Odisha State Scholarship Portal simply as BOC Scholarship, is a state scheme that pays for the technical education of children of registered construction workers. The Skill Development and Technical Education Department, Government of Odisha administers it.

The scheme sits inside a wider welfare structure. Construction work in India is covered by the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and a cess collected on construction projects funds the state welfare boards set up under it. In Odisha that money flows through the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, and one of the things it funds is the education of workers' children. Construction is among the most informal and least secure kinds of employment in the state, and this scholarship exists so a mason's or a helper's child can finish an ITI trade or a polytechnic diploma without the family drawing on daily wages to pay institute costs.

BOC Scholarship is deliberately narrow. It covers ITI, ITC and polytechnic or diploma courses only, the vocational and technical stream that leads most directly to a skilled job. Degree-level professional courses are handled by other Odisha schemes.

How much does the BOC Scholarship pay?

The Odisha State Scholarship Portal does not publish a single rupee figure for this scheme. Against BOC Scholarship the portal records:

• Scholarship amount: "As per course duration (Per year)"
• Target number of scholarships: "As per applications received"
• Frequency: the scholarship may be availed only once in a year

In practice this means the sanction is calculated against the course you are enrolled in and the fee structure of the institution, and it is released annually rather than as a one-time grant. The number of awards is not capped in advance — the department works to the volume of eligible applications received within the deadline, which is a genuinely useful feature for applicants because it removes the merit-rank scramble found in quota-limited schemes.

Payment reaches the student by Direct Benefit Transfer into the bank account entered in the application, which is why the passbook copy with account number and IFSC code is a mandatory upload.

Because the department publishes no flat amount, treat any specific rupee figure you see quoted on a coaching or aggregator site as unverified. The correct figure for your case appears on the sanction letter after approval.

Who is eligible for the BOC Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• Your parent or guardian is registered with the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board as a construction worker, and the registration is live.
• Your parent's annual contribution to the Board has been paid, evidenced by the annual contribution certificate.
• You are enrolled in an ITI, ITC, polytechnic or diploma course at an institution registered on the Odisha State Scholarship Portal.
• You belong to any category, the portal's eligibility table lists SC, ST and OBC/SEBC in one block and General in a second block, with the only difference being the caste certificate requirement.
• You can produce a current college identity card and the marksheet of the last examination passed.

You cannot apply if:

• Your parent is not registered with the Odisha BOCW Welfare Board. Registration is the foundation of the scheme, and household income or occupation described in any other document will not substitute for it.
• Your parent's registration has lapsed because the annual contribution was not paid. This is the most common reason a genuinely eligible family is turned away, and it is fixable; renew the registration at the Labour office and obtain a fresh annual contribution certificate.
• You are studying a course outside the ITI, ITC, polytechnic and diploma list. A B.Tech, B.Sc or general degree student is not eligible under BOC Scholarship.
• You are already availing a scholarship other than the Post Matric Scholarship. The portal's rider permits this scheme only alongside the Post Matric Scholarship of the ST&SC and MBC Welfare Department.
• You have already drawn the scholarship in the same year.

What documents are required?

The portal lists a slightly different set for reserved-category and General applicants:

The annual contribution certificate is the document that carries this application. It is issued against the parent's BOCW Welfare Board registration and confirms the contribution has been paid for the year. Obtain it from the District Labour Office or the office where the worker's registration is held, and check the year printed on it matches the academic year you are applying for.

How to apply for the BOC Scholarship

Application is online only, and it is free.

1. Open scholarship.odisha.gov.in and use the Check Eligibility link. Enter your course details and confirm that BOC Scholarship appears in the list of schemes you qualify for.
2. Collect the annual contribution certificate for your parent from the District Labour Office before you start filling the form, because the application cannot be completed without it.
3. Complete the one-time Aadhaar registration on the portal. Enter your Aadhaar number and the OTP sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number; the user ID and password arrive by SMS and email. Name, gender and date of birth are pulled from Aadhaar and cannot be edited afterwards.
4. Log in, select Skill Development & Technical Education Department as the department and BOC Scholarship as the scheme.
5. Fill the student, academic, eligibility and bank sections. The portal allows saving and resuming across multiple sittings until you submit.
6. Upload the Aadhaar card, annual contribution certificate, bank passbook copy, college identity card, last marksheet, photograph, and the caste certificate if you are SC, ST or OBC/SEBC.
7. Submit, then download and print the completed form. The application locks on submission and cannot be edited.
8. Hand the printout with originals to your institute's scholarship nodal officer, who verifies and forwards it to the department.

If your ITI or polytechnic does not appear in the institution drop-down, the portal instructs you to ask the institute to contact the District Welfare Officer of the district where it is located, who will register it on the portal.

How do I check my application status?

Use Know Your Status on the portal home page. Enter your Aadhaar number or your application number and confirm with the OTP. The screen shows whether your institute has forwarded the application, whether the department has sanctioned it, and whether the DBT payment has been released.

If you spot an error after submitting, tell your institute's nodal person. The institute can Revert the application, which reopens it in your login for correction and resubmission. Filing a duplicate application instead will get both rejected.

Why BOC Scholarship applications get rejected

• Annual contribution certificate missing or for the wrong year. This is the most frequent cause and the easiest to prevent.
• Parent's BOCW registration lapsed. Renew at the District Labour Office and reapply in the next window.
• Name mismatch between the parent's name on the contribution certificate and on the student's records.
• Ineligible course selected. Only ITI, ITC and polytechnic or diploma courses are covered.
• Another scholarship already drawn that is not the Post Matric Scholarship, which breaches the portal rider.
• Application submitted but never forwarded by the institute before the deadline.
• Bank account in a parent's name. The DBT credit needs the student's own Aadhaar-seeded account.

Key dates and grievance route

The cycle currently listed on the Odisha State Scholarship Portal carries a last date of 26 March 2026 for BOC Scholarship. The window reopens each academic year, and extensions are published in the Announcement section on the portal home page, the portal has extended deadlines for several schemes in past cycles, so recheck there before assuming a date has passed.

Do not confuse this scheme with Nirman Shramik Kalyan Yojana (Education Assistance), a separate education-assistance listing of the Labour and ESI Department on the same portal with its own deadline of 31 October 2026. A construction worker's family may find both relevant, but they are distinct applications under distinct departments.

For problems with the online form, call the Sanjog Helpline on 155335 or 1800-345-6770, the toll-free helpdesk of the State Scholarship Portal, open 9 AM to 5 PM on all government official days. For questions about the parent's registration or the annual contribution certificate, the District Labour Office is the right authority. Written grievances can be filed at janasunani.odisha.gov.in.

Applying is free at every step, and no agent can charge for adding a construction worker's child to the scholarship list.