BOCW Miscarriage Benefit Scheme (West Bengal)

What is the BOCW Miscarriage Benefit Scheme in West Bengal?

BOCW Miscarriage Benefit Scheme is listed in national scheme directories as a benefit for registered women construction workers who lose a pregnancy. Several state Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Boards in India do run a distinct miscarriage benefit alongside their maternity benefit. The honest position for West Bengal, checked against the state's own sources, is narrower and worth stating plainly before anything else.

The West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board publishes a list of fifteen welfare measures for its registered beneficiaries. That list includes accidental benefit, medical expenses for major ailments, assistance to tuberculosis patients, maternity benefit, death benefit, pension, education assistance, funeral expenses, a one-time tools reimbursement of up to Rs 2,000, spectacles up to Rs 500, bicycles or warm clothes up to Rs 3,000, marriage assistance, assistance on the birth of a girl child, hearing aids and refund of subscription. Miscarriage is not named on that list.

Nor does the second governing document create one. The Samajik Suraksha Yojana (Rules and Regulations), 2017, republished by Gazette Notification No. 698 on 12 October 2017, sets out four benefit heads; provident fund, health and family welfare, death and disability, and education. There is no miscarriage head in those rules.

What this means practically is that a registered woman construction worker in West Bengal who suffers a miscarriage should claim under the health and family welfare head, and should separately put her request for a miscarriage benefit in writing to the Registering Authority so that any Board resolution on the point can be applied to her case. This guide sets out that route and does not invent a miscarriage rate, because no West Bengal government source publishes one.

What a registered woman worker can actually claim after a miscarriage

Under the health and family welfare head of the scheme:

Claims may be made more than once in a year, but the annual totals of Rs 20,000 and Rs 60,000 are ceilings. All claims are admissible only for expenses at Government hospitals or empanelled hospitals, and only at the package rates of the West Bengal Health Scheme, 2008 as revised by the Finance Department. The loss-of-employment payment is admissible only to the registered worker herself, not to family members. For this head, "year" means a financial year.

Who is eligible, and who is not eligible

You can claim if:

• You are a woman working as a building or other construction worker in West Bengal and are registered with the Welfare Board or under Samajik Suraksha Yojana with Part-V of Form-I completed.
• You are a resident of West Bengal, aged between 18 and 60. The Samajik Mukti Card stays valid to the age of 60 or until membership ceases.
• The cause of action falls on or after 1 April 2017, the date the scheme came into force.

The Rs 6,500 per month family income ceiling that applies to other unorganised workers does not apply to construction workers; for them family income has no upper limit.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are covered under the ESI Act, 1948, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, Swasthya Sathi, or the West Bengal Transport Workers Social Security Scheme, 2010. The rules bar a health claim from anyone covered by those schemes to the extent mentioned in them.
• You are already receiving benefits of a similar nature from any other government scheme.
• You are not registered, or your registration has been cancelled for fraud, false statements or suppression of facts — cancellation forfeits all claims and any contributions.
• Your treatment was taken at a hospital that is neither a Government hospital nor an empanelled one.

How to apply after a miscarriage

1. Check your registration is live. Locate your Samajik Mukti Card, Social Security Identification Number or Identity Card-cum-Pass Book, and identify the Regional Labour Office or Labour Welfare Facilitation Centre where you are registered. If you are not yet registered, submit Form-I complete across Parts I to IV plus Part-V, with a bank passbook copy, EPIC or Aadhaar card and two passport-size colour photographs.
2. Get the medical papers. Obtain a certificate from a doctor of a Government or empanelled hospital recording the miscarriage and its date, together with the discharge certificate showing the period of stay and a self-attested copy of the prescription.
3. Keep the originals. The rules require original documents showing the expenditure incurred, plus an expenditure statement that the Registering Authority verifies. Photocopies are not accepted for this purpose.
4. File Form-V in triplicate with the Registering Authority in the office where you are registered, within 60 days of the start of treatment for outdoor treatment, or within 60 days of release from hospital for indoor treatment, attaching a self-attested copy of your card.
5. Ask for the miscarriage head to be recorded in writing on the claim, and take a dated acknowledgement. A written refusal, if it comes, is what you need for a review.
6. Follow the sanction. The Registering Authority forwards the claim with a recommendation to the Assistant Labour Commissioner within 15 days; the Assistant Labour Commissioner sanctions the payment and transfers it to your bank account.

How to follow up and what to do if the claim fails

West Bengal does not publish an online tracker for these claims. Take your acknowledgement and SSIN back to the Registering Authority, confirm the claim has been forwarded within the 15-day window, then ask the Assistant Labour Commissioner's office whether it has been sanctioned. Claims are entered in a Claim Register and an office computer record, so the file can be traced by name and registration number. Finally, check your bank passbook.

Common reasons these claims fail:

• Treatment at a private hospital that is not empanelled.
• Claim filed after 60 days, which is the outer limit for the health head.
• No original bills or no verified expenditure statement.
• Coverage under Swasthya Sathi or ESI, which bars the health claim outright.
• Part-V of Form-I left blank, so the record does not show construction-worker status.
• Asking for a miscarriage rate that the office has no sanction for, in which case press for the position in writing.

If the claim is rejected or the registration cancelled, apply for a review to the Assistant Labour Commissioner within 60 days; the officer must hear you and pass a reasoned order. If unsatisfied, appeal to the Deputy Labour Commissioner within 30 days. That decision is final and binding.

Background and key dates

The West Bengal Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board was constituted in 2005 under Section 18(1) of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and reconstituted in 2011. From 1 April 2017 the state merged its occupation-wise welfare schemes into Samajik Suraksha Yojana so that construction, transport and other unorganised workers would receive uniform benefits. From 1 April 2020 the state began paying the beneficiary's Rs 25 monthly provident fund subscription itself, and on 7 October 2020 Gazette Notification No. 1447 renamed the scheme Bina Mulya Samajik Suraksha Yojana; free of cost. The portal at bmssy.wblabour.gov.in reported more than 1.19 crore beneficiaries at the time of checking.

Registration and claim filing are free at every stage. The Labour Department has not published a dedicated toll-free helpline for these claims, so do not pay an agent who offers to get money released.