With about ₹ 77,000 crore in the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) cess corpus, the Centre has asked states to assess how the money is being used and identify new avenues to deploy it for workers’ long-term welfare, including pension and social security.
The call comes as the Centre seeks to strengthen welfare measures for a workforce whose employment is often characterised by mobility between construction sites and states. Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje separately called on states to strengthen cess collection from construction establishments and ensure timely and transparent utilisation of the accumulated funds. Discussions during the meeting also called for greater attention to worker safety at construction sites and basic amenities such as toilets, sanitation facilities, creches for children of women workers and housing support.
The country has more than 7 crore construction workers, according to labour secretary Chandra Bhushan Kumar, quoted in the release.
Kumar said welfare facilities need to be designed in a way that makes them accessible to workers wherever their work takes them. She said BOCW funds could be used for pension and social security for ageing workers, primary education support for workers’ children and healthcare coverage. Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya made the call at a national conference of BOCW stakeholders in Mumbai on Friday, where he also flagged the possibility of providing pension support to construction workers and urged states to ensure wider social security coverage, a release in this regard said.
