Construction workers in Maharashtra will receive smart cards from 2020.

In order to assure the safety and security of construction workers on the site, online registration and allocation of smart cards would be started in Maharashtra by next year.

The labour welfare board will set up 41 centres across the state to allow workers to register themselves without any problems. Till now Aurangabad, Jalna, Worli, Solapur, Amravati, Panvel, Bhandara and Nanded are eight offices which are ready. Once the required area is allocated the remaining places would be operational.

S C Shrirangam, CEO of Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, said five private-sector employees would be designated to assist district workers at each centre. Out of five, three would work from the office. And the other two would go to the sites for workers registration.

The Maharashtra Labour Welfare Board is a statutory body founded under the Bombay Labour Welfare Fund Act of 1953. This carries out welfare activities for labours through welfare centres and motivates all workers to register with it. Also, contractors working on projects such as roads construction, drainage and pipelines can register with the board as workers.

The state currently has 20.6 lakh workers that are registered. About 13.1 lakh of them are active. The board officers stressed that after the online registration process had been completed, the number of construction workers would increase.

Workers can register once the labour officers and developers have issued with the 90-day mandatory work certificate. “The process is very easy and once they provide all of their information and biometrics, they can register with a nominal fee of Rs 25. Every month they need to deposit Rs 1 and Rs 60 for five years. Also, each year they will have to renew their membership at the online centres,” said Shrirangam.

Registered workers would be entitled to the Labour Welfare Act for several social protection benefits. The smart card will help workers to access social schemes with a unique identification number. Under the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008, the portable benefit cards would be given. “This would allow workers to identify themselves as unorganized workers and get advantages,” said an official.