National BOCW Conference Opens in Mumbai; States Deliberate Strategies to Extend Welfare Benefits to Construction Workers
MUMBAI: A two-day National Conference on Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) commenced in Mumbai on Friday, convening senior policymakers, labour administrators and welfare board representatives from across the country to deliberate on strengthening welfare delivery, social security coverage and labour rights for India's vast construction workforce. The conference, being held from September 11 to 12, 2026, is structured around the central objective of securing a safe, dignified and prosperous future for construction workers, with detailed deliberations on streamlining welfare fund utilisation, expanding beneficiary registration and ensuring last-mile delivery of statutory benefits to labourers engaged in the unorganised construction sector. The high-level gathering is being attended by Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje, Madhya Pradesh Labour Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, and Chhattisgarh Labour Secretary Him Shikhar Gupta, alongside senior administrative officers and state-level delegates representing the diverse regional frameworks under which BOCW welfare boards operate nationwide.
Chhattisgarh was represented at the national deliberations by Dr. Rampratap Singh, Chairman of the state's Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, and Board Secretary Girish Ramteke, who presented the state's implementation record and ongoing initiatives. During the conference, participating states shared detailed accounts of welfare schemes operationalised in the interest of construction workers, highlighted replicable best practices and showcased technological and administrative innovations adopted to improve registration efficiency and fund disbursement. Deliberations also centred on formulating forward-looking strategies to ensure that social security schemes under the BOCW Act—including maternity benefits, disability compensation, medical assistance, education support for children of workers and pension provisions—reach the maximum number of registered beneficiaries, while addressing persistent challenges such as low awareness, incomplete registration, portability of benefits for migrant workers and delays in claim settlement. The conference is being viewed by labour administrators as a significant institutional step towards making the social security architecture for the country's construction workers more effective, transparent and accessible, particularly given the sector's critical role in national infrastructure development and its engagement of one of the largest shares of informal labour in the Indian economy.
Report: Pankaj Chauhan