AHMEDABAD: A CAG report has exposed a deep-rooted governance crisis in Gujarat’s Building and Other Construction Workers’ (BOCW) welfare mechanism.
Despite collecting nearly Rs 4,787.60 crore in cess from construction projects since 2006, the state could not establish a transparent and accountable system to safeguard the rights and welfare of its vast construction workforce. Critical boards remain defunct, thousands of posts lie vacant, and a staggering 47% of the funds remain in government accounts.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the Welfare of Building and Other Construction Workers for the period ending March 2022 was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly last Wednesday.
The BOCW Act, 1996, was designed to protect construction workers, one of the most vulnerable sections of India’s workforce, by establishing a three-tier structure: a welfare board, an advisory committee, and a dedicated welfare fund. But Gujarat’s audit findings paint a picture of systemic neglect and institutional decay.
The State BOCW Board was intended to represent all stakeholders — government, employers, and workers — equally. Yet, since November 2017, the state has operated with a single-member board led by the Principal Secretary of the Labour Department. For five years, decisions affecting thousands of workers were made without any representation from workers or employers.
This collapse of governance deepened further as the State Advisory Committee (SAC), mandated under Section 4(1) of the Act to guide policy, has not been constituted since 2011. Without SAC oversight, critical decisions around safety, welfare schemes, and fund usage lacked expert inputs. The Welfare Fund was never formally created. Instead, cess collections were diverted into a government account, leaving the Board dependent on irregular grants.