By Varsha Priyadarshini & Chitra Rawat

In this edition of Pravasi, we bring to you the experiences of migrant workers w.r.t registering, renewing and availing benefits under the BOCW [Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Service)] Act 1996 from the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Since each state has its own provisions for enacting rules for implementation, the journey and challenges faced by workers in accessing the ecosystem vary greatly. 

In the first part of the series, we explore different registration processes for BOCW in Thane and Bangalore; drawing from the field experiences of the Chalo Team. We also refer to a recent study on BOCW conducted jointly by IMN and Dvara Research. The study assessed the access construction workers have to basic financial services and welfare measures within the framework of BOCW. 

The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act was passed in 1996 to safeguard the rights of construction workers. Workers can apply for various social security benefits such as medical assistance, maternity benefits, accident cover, pension, educational assistance for their children, assistance to family members in case of death, group insurance, loans, funeral assistance, and marriage assistance for their children.

The Act includes a large category of workers — unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled including those within supervisory, technical, or clerical roles in the construction sector. However, the Act does not specify “migrant worker” as a separate category.

Under the BOCW Act, every state government is directed to set up its rules regarding the BOCW Board, registration of establishments under the Act, rules for cess collection and benefits and schemes for workers A Cess Fund is constituted with the purpose of collecting a fee from the employers of construction workers. Any construction project with a budget of more than 10 lakhs is mandated to contribute 1% of the total cost towards the fund. Workers registered with the board are issued an identity card with their identification and employment details. It is commonly called the “labour card” or “bokwa card”.

The roadblocks in the BOCW ecosystem and its inability to reach its target populations, especially migrant construction workers, came to the forefront during the COVID crisis. The Central Government directed all State Governments to use the unutilized cess welfare fund towards providing some form of financial stability to the registered construction workers within their states, most being migrants. Many states made provisions for Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) to registered workers under the act following the migrant crisis in 2020. Studies found that many workers were not eligible for DBTs announced as they were neither registered under the Act nor had BOCW cards.

Several other issues raked up, including a lack of awareness of the card and its benefits, the tedious process of registration, the language barrier for migrants and non-uniformity of the application process for registration and benefit claims across states. The next session explains some of these in detail:

Lack of awareness, misinformation on “labour cards” and “why” BOCW?

One of the most discussed points when assessing BOCW is the lack of awareness of the scheme and its associated benefits. During our field visit to a labour nakka in Thane, our team observed that a majority of inter-state migrant workers in the area did not have BOCW cards. Additionally, they were asked to produce the 90-day proof of employment, which a seasonal migrant construction worker finds difficult to acquire.

Moreover, workers learn about BOCW only after coming to the destination state. In this case, it was through Chalo Network and a local organisation working on the ground. Because workers had no prior information about BOCW, they were either missing required documentation or their existing documentation was mired with inconsistencies. For example, people had different last names on their PAN and Aadhaar cards, which made the KYC process tougher. Many only had tattered copies of their Aadhaar cards, and texts were hard to decipher. The BOCW process in itself, therefore, was delayed because more time was invested in getting documentation done for workers.

But what is surprising is that the exclusion of inter-state migrant workers from BOCW continues in states which do not have strict mandates for employment proof. As per our field team in Bangalore, most BOCW registrations are of intra-state migrants. Interstate migrant workers are simply not interested in registering for BOCW, they say.

Lack of awareness and inconvenient registration processes only tell a part of the story. A majority of inter-state workers self-reject themselves as a beneficiary because they already have a labour card, by which they mean an NREGA card or, in recent times, an e-shram card. Additionally, most don’t feel the need to apply for a BOCW card because of their short-term contracts and the seasonality of work in the construction industry. The question that our field team often gets from inter-state construction workers is “how will BOCW help us when there is no guarantee of us being in the same state in the following months?”

Navigating the Hurdle of Employment Proof

Acquiring employment proof in Maharashtra is one of the most difficult processes for workers registering for BOCW. Drawing from Chalo’s field team's experience, it is doubly difficult for inter-state workers to get signed proof from their contractors. More often than not, employers are not registered under BOCW. There is a lack of clarity on who the employer is or the contractor does not want to commit to providing any legal proof of employment.

Karnataka has a more flexible policy where proof of employment can be signed by any of the following persons - contractor, Gram Panchayat PDO (Panchayat Development Officer), the Assistant Labour Commissioner’s office or by a registered labour union of the state. Employment proofs in Bangalore are almost unilaterally done by union leaders assisting workers in registering for BOCW. However, inter-state migrant workers cannot access this mechanism because they do not have the networks to connect with local union leaders. The unions' focus has often been on connecting people from the same region.

Language Barriers

The Chalo Team, while working at construction sites in Maharashtra, noticed that workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal form almost 60% of the entire workforce in the project, and yet Marathi and English are the only languages in which BOCW form notices were available. This proves to be a major exclusionary factor for migrant workers who are unable to fill out forms on their own.

Alienation in the destination state means that they do not have a mediator to help them with the process. Add to this, the BOCW process is long and cumbersome. The NGO partners often have to go to the nearest BOCW office themselves to get enrollment for workers done on time. Workers often have to wait for 3 months to receive their BOCW cards. There is a high possibility that these workers might not return to the same state after 3 months.

Bangalore also presents a similar case where the forms are either in English or Kannada. Hence, the documentation process is not worker-friendly and demands a certain degree of literacy/vernacular literacy from workers, in an industry which employs a major chunk of the informal uneducated population.

To summarise, for a migrant construction worker employed in an industry where short-term, location-based projects are the norm; BOCW is one of the most tedious welfare ecosystems to navigate. Starting from several entry-level barriers to the gruelling process of registrations, language barriers and benefit claims. Constantly moving across states on the whims of the contractor, an inter-state migrant worker is one of the most excluded beneficiaries.

In the next part of the series, we will continue the discussion on the BOCW experience from other major destination cities. Following this, the series will touch upon potential reforms needed to make BOCW accessible for inter-state migrant workers.