The Building and Other Construction Workers cess was never meant to be charity. It was a hard-won levy. One percent of construction cost. Money meant to protect workers who fall from scaffolds, migrate across states, and age without pensions. The Draft Social Security Rules of 2025 quietly change how this money is checked. Under Rule 42, the State steps back. Contractors now self-assess their liability and get it certified by a chartered engineer they themselves hire. This is not reform. It is withdrawal. When private professionals paid by builders decide what builders owe, under-reporting is not a risk. It is the business model.
The rules go further. If the self-assessed cess is below Rs 10 lakh, no scrutiny is required at all. That covers projects under roughly Rs 10 crore. A huge part of India’s construction economy lives right there. Medium projects. Apartment blocks. Commercial buildings. Add to this a 180-day deadline after which self-assessment becomes final by default. Delay becomes a reward. Inaction becomes policy. Meanwhile, refunds to employers must be cleared in 30 days. Fast lanes for capital. Slow queues for workers.
This logic of dilution repeats itself in the Draft Code on Wages. The State defines a standard working family as four people but counts them as only three adult consumption units. One earner. A spouse. Two children. No parents. No dependents. No reality. In speeches, the joint family is praised. In wage law, it disappears. The message is blunt. Care for elders is your duty. Paying for it is not the employer’s problem. Even food is cut mathematically. Women are assumed to need less. Children even less. In 2026, this arithmetic still survives.
The same hollowing out appears in maternity protection. Crèches can be moved farther away in industrial zones. Nursing breaks are capped by travel time that may not exist in real life. And childcare can be replaced with a Rs 500 allowance. That is not support. It barely buys milk powder. Worse, maternity benefits can be withdrawn for vaguely defined misconduct, including moral turpitude. A pregnant woman’s survival is turned into a disciplinary tool. Fight back, lose your benefit.
Taken together, these rules mark a clear shift. From inspection to facilitation. From rights to paperwork. From welfare to accounting. The State collects less, checks less, and forgives more. Funds grow on paper but fail to reach people. Workers remain invisible unless registered by employers who gain nothing by doing so. This is not simplification. It is erosion by design. And the cost will be paid, as always, by those who build India and remain unseen once the building is complete.
