BOCW Maternity Benefit Scheme (West Bengal)

What is the BOCW Maternity Benefit Scheme in West Bengal?

BOCW Maternity Benefit Scheme is the maternity head of the welfare measures that the West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board provides to women registered with it as construction workers. The benefit has a statutory basis: Section 22(1)(g) of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 helps a state Welfare Board to make payment of maternity benefit to female beneficiaries, and the West Bengal Board's own published list of welfare measures names maternity benefit as item (d), between financial assistance to tuberculosis patients and the death benefit.

The West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board was constituted in 2005 and reconstituted in 2011. The Regional Labour Offices under the Labour Commissionerate act as its regional offices, and Assistant Labour Commissioners and Inspectors posted at blocks and municipalities act as Beneficiary Registering Officers.

A woman working on a construction site is one of the least protected workers in the state. She has no employer-paid maternity leave, no Employees' State Insurance cover in most cases, and loses her daily wage entirely in the weeks around childbirth. The maternity benefit exists to replace part of that lost income and to reduce the pressure to return to head-load work too soon after delivery.

Since 1 April 2017 construction workers in West Bengal have been brought under Samajik Suraksha Yojana, 2017, which merged the earlier occupation-wise welfare schemes so that workers in different trades would get uniform benefits. From 1 April 2020 the state government took over the Rs 25 monthly provident fund subscription that beneficiaries previously paid, and the scheme was renamed Bina Mulya Samajik Suraksha Yojana (BM-SSY) by Gazette Notification No. 1447 dated 7 October 2020. Construction workers already enrolled with the Welfare Board continue to draw benefits under their own scheme as amended, which is why the maternity head remains a Board measure rather than a BM-SSY head.

A caution on the amount. The Labour Department's published rate card for the Board lists figures for accident treatment (Rs 10,000), disablement (Rs 50,000), monthly pension (Rs 750 for the beneficiary and Rs 375 for the family), natural death (Rs 50,000) and accidental death (Rs 1,50,000). No maternity figure is published there, and the Samajik Suraksha Yojana rules of 2017 do not contain a maternity head at all, they cover provident fund, health and family welfare, death and disability, and education. This guide therefore does not quote a maternity amount. Ask the Regional Labour Office where you are registered.

Who is eligible for the BOCW maternity benefit?

You can claim if:

• You are a woman working as a building or other construction worker in West Bengal.
• You are a resident of West Bengal and are between 18 and 60 years of age. The Samajik Mukti Card is valid up to the age of 60 or until membership ceases, whichever is earlier.
• You are registered with the West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board, or under Samajik Suraksha Yojana with Part-V of Form-I filled in to record your construction-worker status.
• You have not already drawn maternity assistance twice. The benefit is designed to be available up to two times.

The income test that applies to other unorganised workers does not apply to you. The rules impose a Rs 6,500 per month family income ceiling on unorganised workers generally, and then say expressly that for construction and transport workers family income has no upper limit.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not registered as a construction worker. Registration before the event is the precondition for every benefit under this scheme.
• Your registration has been cancelled for fraud, false statements or suppression of facts. Cancellation forfeits all claims and any contributions are forfeited to the Government.
• You are already in receipt of financial assistance of a similar nature from the Government for the same delivery.
• You have already claimed the maternity benefit on two occasions.
• Your Form-I was incomplete at the registration stage. An incomplete Form-I is summarily rejected without any further correspondence, which means no valid registration exists to claim against.

How to apply for the BOCW Maternity Benefit Scheme

1. Register as a construction worker. Fill Form-I completely across Parts I, II, III and IV and submit it to the Registering Authority where you permanently reside, with a photocopy of the first page of your bank passbook, your EPIC voter card or Aadhaar card, and two recent passport-size colour photographs.
2. Fill Part-V of Form-I as well. This is the part that records you as a construction worker and opens the Welfare Board's additional benefits, including maternity benefit.
3. Collect your Samajik Mukti Card and Identity Card-cum-Pass Book, which carry your unique Social Security Identification Number (SSIN) and work as your identity document at any Regional Labour Office or Labour Welfare Facilitation Centre in the state.
4. After the delivery, gather the proof. The certificate of delivery from the Government or empanelled hospital showing the date, and the child's birth certificate from the Registrar of Birth and Death or the local body.
5. Fill Form-V and submit it in triplicate to the Registering Authority in the office where you are registered, along with a self-attested copy of your card and your bank passbook copy.
6. Wait for the sanction. The Registering Authority verifies eligibility and the genuineness of the claim, may hold an enquiry, and forwards the claim with a recommendation to the Assistant Labour Commissioner, who sanctions the amount and transfers it to your bank account.

Registration can be done at block, municipality and municipal corporation level, through special enrolment camps, or online through the BM-SSY portal at bmssy.wblabour.gov.in. There is no fee at any stage.

How to check the status of a maternity claim

West Bengal does not publish a self-service tracker for Board welfare measures. Follow up in person:

1. Take your Form-V acknowledgement and SSIN back to the Registering Authority and ask whether the claim has been forwarded.
2. Ask the Assistant Labour Commissioner's office whether it has been sanctioned. Claims are recorded in a Claim Register and an office computer record, so the file can be traced.
3. Check your bank passbook for the credit.

Why maternity claims get rejected, and how to fix them

• Registration completed after the delivery. The Board pays benefits to workers already on its rolls, so enrol during pregnancy rather than after.
• Part-V of Form-I left blank, so the record does not show you as a construction worker even though you are registered under the scheme.
• No hospital certificate of delivery. A birth certificate alone often does not satisfy the office; both documents are usually asked for.
• A third claim. Maternity assistance is normally limited to two occasions, and the third application is refused on that ground.
• Bank account not in the applicant's own name, or details that do not match the identity documents. Payments are made only by bank transfer.
• Similar assistance already drawn from another government maternity scheme for the same delivery.

If your claim is rejected or your registration is cancelled, apply for a review to the Assistant Labour Commissioner of your area within 60 days. The Assistant Labour Commissioner must hear you and pass a reasoned order. If you are not satisfied, appeal to the Deputy Labour Commissioner within 30 days of that order; the decision is final and binding.

Key dates and grievance route

• 20 September 2005, the West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board was constituted; reconstituted in September 2011.
• 3 April 2017, the West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) rules were amended to align with Samajik Suraksha Yojana.
• 1 April 2017 — Samajik Suraksha Yojana came into force across West Bengal.
• 1 April 2020, the state began paying the Rs 25 monthly subscription on behalf of beneficiaries.
• 7 October 2020, Gazette Notification No. 1447 renamed the scheme Bina Mulya Samajik Suraksha Yojana.

Grievances run through the Registering Authority, then the Assistant Labour Commissioner, then the Deputy Labour Commissioner of the area. The Labour Department has not published a dedicated toll-free helpline for these claims, so do not pay any agent who offers to "get the maternity money released". The registration and the claim are both free.