Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana (BOCW)

What is Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana for construction workers?

Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana is a health cover scheme named after the founder of Pingalwara, and this page covers the version administered by the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board under the Department of Labour, Punjab. The Board lists it among its group benefit schemes for registered construction workers.

According to the Board's welfare schemes document, "under this scheme, a registered beneficiary and the members of his family (no cap on family size) can avail free medical treatment up to Rs 50,000 per family, per year. This scheme also provides insurance benefit of Rs 5 lakh to the beneficiary in the event of his accidental death or 100 per cent disability."

Two features make this scheme different from most health schemes an Indian worker will encounter. The absence of a family-size cap is the first: a construction worker supporting parents, a spouse and four children is not forced to choose which of them the card covers. The second is that the scheme bundles a life and disability insurance component into what is otherwise a treatment card, so a single registration produces both.

The Board is funded by a cess levied on construction cost across Punjab, not by premiums from workers. That is why no premium is charged for this cover.

Who is eligible for Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana under BOCW?

You can get the health card if:

• You are a construction worker registered with the Punjab BOCW Welfare Board.
• You are aged between 18 and 60 years, the registration window set by the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996.
• You completed at least 90 days of building or construction work in the twelve months before registering.
• Your monthly contribution of Rs 10 is paid, keeping the membership live.
• Your family members are named on the card: spouse, children and dependants, with no cap on how many.

You are not eligible if:

• You have never registered with the Board, however long you have worked on Punjab construction sites. Working in the trade does not by itself create the entitlement; the registration does.
• Your registration has lapsed through unpaid contributions. A lapsed member's card will not be honoured at the hospital counter.
• You work in a trade outside the definition of building and other construction work under the 1996 Act, for example a factory worker or a shop employee, who are covered by different labour welfare arrangements.
• You are not a family member of a registered worker. Cover extends to the worker's family, not to co-workers or neighbours.

Note that eligibility for the cover and eligibility for the Rs 5 lakh insurance component are not identical in practice. The Board's own text distinguishes between workers who have the health card and those who do not, and pays them under different heads.

What exactly does the scheme pay?

Treatment cover

• Rs 50,000 per family per year of free medical treatment, shared across all named family members, with no cap on family size.

Insurance component for health card holders

• Rs 5 lakh in case of accidental death of a registered construction worker.
• Rs 5 lakh in case of complete (100 per cent) disability during an accident.

Ex-gratia for registered workers who do NOT hold the health card

The Board runs a separate Ex-gratia Scheme for registered workers without a Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana card, and the amounts differ:

• Rs 4 lakh for accidental death.
• Rs 3 lakh for natural death.
• Rs 4 lakh for complete (100 per cent) disability.
• Rs 4,000 for every one per cent of partial disability of a registered construction worker.

Reading those two lists side by side is the clearest argument for getting the health card issued: accidental death cover rises from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh simply by holding it.

What happens when the Rs 50,000 limit runs out?

The Rs 50,000 annual limit is deliberately positioned as the first layer, and two other Board schemes sit above it:

• General Surgery Scheme: financial aid of up to Rs 50,000, or actual expenses, whichever is less, for general surgery of the beneficiary and his family members.
• Reimbursement of expenditure for occupational diseases — up to Rs 1 lakh incurred by beneficiaries and their dependants for the treatment of sixteen dangerous ailments specified in the scheme.

Both schemes carry the same explicit condition in the Board's document: any beneficiary who intends to avail the benefit "will have to first exhaust the benefit of Rs 50,000 for all his health ailments with the health card facility under the Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Beema Yojna Scheme." A claim filed for general surgery while the health card still has an unused balance will be sent back.

How to apply for the BOCW health card in Punjab

1. Register with the Board first, if you have not already. Fill Form 28 at a Sewa Kendra or online at pblabour.gov.in, paying the one-time registration fee of Rs 25 and the contribution of Rs 10 per month.
2. Keep the membership live by paying the monthly contribution through the challan option on the portal. A defaulting membership is the commonest reason a card fails at a hospital.
3. Apply for the health card through the welfare-schemes section of the labour portal, selecting Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana, or ask the Sewa Kendra operator to file it for you.
4. Add every family member you want covered, with each person's Aadhaar and photograph. Because there is no cap on family size, leaving a dependant off the card is a pure loss.
5. Submit and note the application number, then collect the card once it is issued.
6. Carry the card and your Aadhaar to an empanelled hospital, where treatment is given cashless against the Rs 50,000 annual family limit.

For the Rs 5 lakh accidental death or disability claim

1. File the claim through the district Labour Office or the labour portal, naming the nominee recorded with the Board.
2. Attach the death or disability evidence: post-mortem report and FIR for an accidental death, or a disability certificate from a competent medical board for a 100 per cent disability claim.
3. Attach the worker's registration card and health card to establish which of the two benefit levels applies.
4. Track the claim with the application number and follow up with the Labour Inspector of the circle, who conducts the field verification.

How to check your card and claim status

1. Sign in at pblabour.gov.in using the mobile number registered against your labour card.
2. Open the membership section and confirm that the contribution status shows no arrears.
3. Open the applied-schemes section and enter your application number to see whether the claim is pending verification, sanctioned or rejected.

Common reasons a health card claim fails

• Contribution arrears, which suspend the membership and with it the card.
• Annual limit exhausted, the Rs 50,000 is per family per year, not per person.
• Family member not named on the card, so the hospital cannot bill against it.
• Hospital not empanelled, in which case the cashless facility does not apply.
• Name or Aadhaar mismatch between the labour card, the health card and the hospital record.
• Claim filed under general surgery or occupational disease before the Rs 50,000 health card balance was used up.

Where to raise a complaint

Complaints about a rejected claim or a card that a hospital will not accept go first to the District Labour Officer of your district, and then to the Board through the HelpDesk link on bocw.punjab.gov.in. Keep the registration number, the health card number and the hospital's written refusal, since a grievance without them is hard for the office to trace.

Registration and every welfare claim under the Board are free apart from the notified registration fee of Rs 25 and the Rs 10 monthly contribution. No agent can charge a commission to "get the health card issued", and no official will ask for the OTP sent to your mobile.