Shramik Annapurna Yojana (GBOCWWB)

What is Shramik Annapurna Yojana?

Shramik Annapurna Yojana is a food-security scheme of the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (GBOCWWB), the statutory board set up under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and administered by Gujarat's Labour, Skill Development and Employment Department.

According to the Board's own scheme note published on bocwwb.gujarat.gov.in, the purpose of Shramik Annapurna Yojana is "providing nutritious meals to laborers at concessional rates at the workplace or on Kadianaka". The concessional rate is fixed at Rs 5 per plate. The worker pays that Rs 5; the Board funds the rest of the cost of cooking, transporting and serving the food out of the construction cess it collects from builders and infrastructure projects.

The scheme is often written locally as Shramik Annapurna Yojana or simply the "Rs 5 bhojan" scheme, and it is one of roughly twenty welfare schemes the Board runs for registered construction workers.

Why the scheme exists

• Construction workers in Gujarat are largely daily-wage and migrant. A hot meal bought near a worksite can cost a meaningful share of a day's wage.
• Kadia nakas. The street corners where masons, helpers and labourers gather at dawn to be picked up for the day's work; are the single most reliable place to reach this workforce, because that is where they are physically present before work begins.
• Serving food at the naka and at large worksites removes the need for the worker to travel or to skip a meal, and it improves nutrition without any cash transfer, bank seeding or DBT dependency.

What makes this scheme different from the Board's other schemes

Almost every other GBOCWWB scheme. The Rs 3,00,000 accidental death assistance, the Rs 1,60,000 Shree Nanaji Deshmukh Awas housing help, the Rs 10,000 funeral assistance, the maternity assistance — is a cash benefit paid into a bank account after an online application is scrutinised. Shramik Annapurna Yojana is an in-kind benefit delivered on the spot. There is no form, no sanction letter and no waiting period. That also means there is no application status to track.

Who is eligible for Shramik Annapurna Yojana?

You can get the Rs 5 meal if:

• You are a construction worker registered with the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, and you hold a valid e-Nirman card. The Board's scheme note is explicit that "the benefits of this scheme can be availed by construction workers registered with Gujarat Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board and their family members".
• You are a family member of such a registered worker. Spouses and children accompanying the worker are covered by the same entitlement.
• Your registration has not lapsed. BOCW registration in Gujarat has to be kept live; a card that has expired will not be honoured at the counter.

Underlying registration conditions under the BOCW Act, 1996

To hold an e-Nirman card in the first place, a worker must ordinarily be between 18 and 60 years of age and must have worked as a building or other construction worker for at least 90 days in the preceding 12 months. These are the statutory registration conditions under the BOCW Act and the Gujarat rules made under it; they are conditions for the card, not extra conditions for the meal.

You are not eligible if:

• You have not registered with GBOCWWB. An unregistered worker standing at the same kadia naka cannot claim the Rs 5 rate.
• Your e-Nirman card has lapsed or has been cancelled.
• You work in a sector outside building and other construction work, factory labour, agricultural labour, domestic work and transport are covered by other boards or by no board at all, and those workers cannot apply for this benefit.
• You are a member of the general public, a contractor, a supervisor or an employer. The scheme is for workers, not for the establishments that engage them.

What documents are required for Shramik Annapurna Yojana?

How to apply for and use Shramik Annapurna Yojana

1. Register with the Board first. Open sanman.gujarat.gov.in, choose Registration for a new user, and complete the construction worker registration with your Aadhaar number, mobile number, employer details and bank account. Workers who prefer paper can register at the district BOCW office or through a Board camp held at a worksite.
2. Submit proof of 90 days' construction work in the preceding 12 months, signed by your employer, contractor or the site engineer. This is the step that most often holds up a registration.
3. Collect your e-Nirman card once the district office verifies the application. Check that your name, photograph and validity date are correct before you leave the counter.
4. Go to a designated Annapurna counter at your kadia naka or at your worksite kitchen at the serving time announced locally.
5. Show the e-Nirman card, pay Rs 5 and take the meal. No form is filled and no signature is required beyond the counter register the caterer maintains.
6. Bring family members with the same card if they are eating with you; the Board's note extends the benefit to family members of the registered worker.

How do I check whether the scheme is running near me?

Shramik Annapurna Yojana has no online status page, because there is no application to track. To find out whether a counter operates at your naka:

1. Call the Board's toll-free helpline 155372.
2. Ask at your district BOCW office. The Board runs 33 district offices, one for each district of Gujarat, and the district inspector holds the list of operating Annapurna centres.
3. Ask the labour inspector or site welfare officer at large infrastructure worksites, where the kitchen is often run inside the site.

If you want to check the status of a different GBOCWWB benefit, an education award, maternity assistance or accident claim: use the Application Status link on sanman.gujarat.gov.in, which opens the applicant status view.

Why do workers get turned away, and how to fix it

• No e-Nirman card on hand. The card is the entitlement. Keep it with you; a photocopy is usually not accepted for a same-day benefit.
• Card has expired. Renew it at the district BOCW office before it lapses. Renewal needs fresh proof of construction work.
• Name or photograph mismatch. Get the record corrected at the district office rather than arguing at the counter.
• No counter at that naka. Not every kadia naka in Gujarat has an operating kitchen. The Board and its catering partners run centres where volumes justify them, so the nearest counter may be a different naka.
• Being asked for more than Rs 5. The rate published by the Board is Rs 5. Report overcharging to 155372 or to the district BOCW office.

What else can a registered construction worker in Gujarat claim?

Registering for the Annapurna meal opens the whole GBOCWWB scheme list published on bocwwb.gujarat.gov.in, which includes Shramik Parivahan Yojana (a subsidised municipal bus pass, with the Board paying 80 per cent), Shramik Basera Yojana, Shree Nanaji Deshmukh Awas Yojana at Rs 1,60,000, accidental death assistance of Rs 3,00,000, funeral assistance of Rs 10,000, Dhanvantari Arogya Rath, Go-Green Shramik and Mukhyamantri Bhagyalakshmi Bond. One registration, one card, covers all of them.

Help and grievance redressal

• Toll-free helpline: 155372
• Email: ms-bocw-ahd@gujarat.gov.in
• Head office: First Floor, F-1 Wing, Block-3, Karmayogi Bhavan, Sector-10A, Gandhinagar
• District offices: 33 district BOCW offices across Gujarat, listed with their own phone numbers and email addresses on enirmanbocw.gujarat.gov.in

Registration with the Board is free. No agent, contractor or caterer is authorised to charge a fee to enrol you, to issue an e-Nirman card, or to charge more than Rs 5 for an Annapurna meal.