Right against exploitation and the right to education

Detail

1. What the right against exploitation is

• Right against exploitation: the group of Art. 23 and Art. 24 in Part III. Its aim is to stop the strong from using the weak for unpaid, forced or harmful work.
• Most Fundamental Rights protect a person only against the State. These two rights are different: they bind private persons too. A landlord, a contractor or a factory owner can break them.
• Art. 35 gives Parliament, not the state legislatures, the power to make laws that punish acts banned by Part III, including the offences under Art. 23.

2. Art. 23: no trafficking and no forced labour

• Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour (Art. 23):
• Art. 23(1) bans traffic in human beings (buying, selling or moving people for sex work, slavery or labour), begar and other similar forms of forced labour. Breaking this ban is an offence punishable by law.

• Art. 23(2) lets the State make people do compulsory service for public purposes, such as military service or social service. It must not discriminate only on grounds of religion, race, caste or class, or any of them.

• Begar: forced labour without pay. In the past, landlords, moneylenders and other rich people made poor people do such work (NCERT).

3. Forced labour widened by the courts

• Asiad workers case (PUDR v. Union of India, 1982):
• Workers were building venues in Delhi for the 1982 Asian Games.
• Contractors paid them less than the legal minimum wage.

• The Supreme Court held that paying less than the minimum wage is "forced labour" under Art. 23. Poverty and hunger can force a person to work, even without physical force.

• Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan (1983): the same rule applies to famine-relief work. The State cannot pay relief workers less than the minimum wage just because the work is meant as help.

4. Bonded labour

• Bonded labour: work that a debtor, or the debtor's family, is forced to do for a creditor for little or no wage until a debt is repaid. The debt often never ends and can pass from parents to children. NCERT notes it is still found in brick kilns.
• Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India (1984):
• The petition was about bonded workers in stone quarries near Faridabad.
• The Court treated a letter as a public interest litigation (PIL), a case filed for people who cannot reach the court themselves.

• It ordered the State to find, free and rehabilitate bonded labourers.

• Neerja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1984): freeing bonded labourers is not enough. The State must rehabilitate them quickly, or they will fall back into bondage.

• Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976:
• It frees every bonded labourer.
• It cancels their bonded debts.
• It punishes anyone who forces bonded labour.

• District-level vigilance committees find and free bonded labourers and help them rebuild their lives.

• Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer, 2016:

• It came into effect on 17 May 2016 and replaced the older scheme [2].
• The Centre pays 100% of the rehabilitation money [2].
• Help rose from ₹20,000 to ₹1 lakh for an adult male. It is ₹3 lakh in extreme cases, such as transgender persons, persons with disabilities, and women or children rescued from brothels, placement agencies or trafficking [2][3].
• Each state must keep a district-level rehabilitation fund of at least ₹10 lakh with the District Magistrate [2].
• ₹33 crore was allocated to the scheme for 2016-17 to 2019-20 [2].

5. Anti-trafficking laws

• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956: the main law against trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, s.143: makes trafficking of persons a crime. It replaced the trafficking section of the old Indian Penal Code.
• Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018:
• The Lok Sabha passed it on 26 July 2018 [5].
• The Rajya Sabha never took it up. It lapsed when the 16th Lok Sabha was dissolved in 2019 [5].
• It proposed jail from 7-10 years for trafficking one person, and life imprisonment for trafficking more than one minor [5].
• India still has no single, complete anti-trafficking law [5].

6. Art. 24: no child labour in factories, mines or hazardous work

• Prohibition of child labour (Art. 24): no child under 14 may work in a factory, mine or any other hazardous job.
• Art. 24 does not ban all child work. The wider ban comes from an ordinary law.
• Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (renamed and amended in 2016):

Age group	Rule after the 2016 amendment
Child (under 14)	No work at all. Two exceptions: helping in a family enterprise after school hours, and work as a child artist
Adolescent (14-18)	No hazardous work, such as mines or work with explosives

• The 2016 amendment came into force on 1 September 2016 [4].
• Employing an adolescent against the law can mean 6 months to 2 years in jail, a fine of ₹20,000-50,000, or both [4].
• Offences by employers are cognizable, meaning police can arrest without a warrant [4].

• Parents or guardians are not punished unless they themselves allow the child to do banned work [4].

• M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu (1996):

• The case was about children working in the Sivakasi match and firework factories.
• The Court ordered a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund.

• Each employer who broke the law had to pay ₹20,000 per child into the fund. The money was meant to pay for the child's schooling.

• Directive Principles behind Art. 24:

• Art. 39(e): children of tender age must not be abused, and no one should be forced by poverty into work unsuited to their age or strength.

• Art. 39(f): children must get the chance to grow in a healthy way and be protected against exploitation.

• NCERT exercise: a child from a manual-scavenging family is kept out of school. This case touches both the right against exploitation and the right to education.

7. Education: from Directive Principle to Fundamental Right

• Original Art. 45 (1950): a Directive Principle, a goal the State should follow that no court can enforce. The State was to give free and compulsory education to all children up to 14 within ten years of the Constitution starting. That target was missed.
• Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka (1992):
• The case was about capitation fees (large extra payments demanded for admission).

• The Court held that the right to education flows from Art. 21 (right to life).

• Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993):

• Unni Krishnan case: the Court limited the Mohini Jain ruling.
• Every child up to 14 has a fundamental right to free education under Art. 21.

• Beyond 14, the right depends on how much the State can afford.

• 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 made three changes:

Provision	Change
Art. 21A (new)	Free and compulsory education for children aged 6-14, "in such manner as the State may, by law, determine"
Art. 45 (rewritten)	The State shall try to give early childhood care and education to children below six
Art. 51A(k) (new)	A Fundamental Duty of parents or guardians to give their child aged 6-14 the chance to get an education. It is the 11th duty

• Right to education (Art. 21A): a positive right. The State must actively provide schools and teachers, not just stay out of the way.
• NCERT: with child labour made illegal and education made a right, Art. 24 has become "more meaningful".

8. RTE Act, 2009

• Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: the law that gives effect to Art. 21A. It came into force on 1 April 2010.
• Main features:
• Neighbourhood schools: a school within a set distance of the child's home.
• No capitation fees and no screening tests (tests of the child or parents before admission).
• Pupil-teacher ratio norms: a fixed number of pupils for each teacher.
• 25% of entry-level seats in private unaided schools are kept for children from weaker and disadvantaged groups. The State pays back the cost.

• No child shall be expelled until elementary education is complete [6].

• Court rulings on the 25% quota:

• Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India (2012): upheld the quota for private unaided schools. Unaided minority schools were left out.
• Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v. Union of India (2014): the RTE Act does not apply to minority schools, whether aided or unaided, because Art. 30 protects their right to run their own institutions.

9. The no-detention policy

• No-detention policy: the original RTE Act said no child could be held back (detained) in any class up to Class 8.
• 2019 amendment:
• States may hold regular exams in Classes 5 and 8.
• A child who fails gets a re-exam within two months.

• A child who fails again may be held back if the state chooses.

• Amendment rules, 21 December 2024 (G.S.R. 777(E)):

• The Centre brought in a detention policy for Classes 5 and 8, but only in schools run by the Central Government and by UTs without a legislature [6].
• 16 states and UTs, such as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, still follow no-detention from Class 1 to 8 [6].
• Haryana and Puducherry had not decided when the rules were notified [6].
• The rules keep the ban on expelling any child before elementary education is complete [6].

10. Who checks that these rights are followed

• NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) works at the national level, and SCPCRs (State Commissions) work in the states.
• Under the RTE Act, they check that the right to education is followed and hear complaints.
• NCERT Fig. 6.19 (Class 7) shows how school education is shared across the three tiers of government, with NCPCR and SCPCR as watchdogs.

Prelims Hooks

• Arts. 23 and 24 can be enforced against private persons as well as the State.
• Art. 23(2) allows compulsory public service, such as military service, but it must not discriminate only on grounds of religion, race, caste or class.
• PUDR v. UoI (1982) = paying below the minimum wage is forced labour. Sanjit Roy (1983) = the same rule for famine-relief work.
• Art. 24 bans work under 14 only in factories, mines and hazardous jobs. The ban on all work under 14 comes from the 2016 amendment to the Child Labour Act, in force 1 September 2016.
• 86th Amendment (2002) = Art. 21A (ages 6-14) + rewritten Art. 45 (below 6) + Art. 51A(k) (11th Fundamental Duty, on parents).
• Unni Krishnan (1993) limited the Mohini Jain (1992) right to education to children up to 14.
• RTE Act 2009 came into force on 1 April 2010. Pramati (2014) exempts all minority schools, aided or unaided.
• Bonded labour rehabilitation scheme (2016): ₹1 lakh for an adult male, up to ₹3 lakh in extreme cases, 100% paid by the Centre.
• Trap: the Trafficking of Persons Bill, 2018 passed only the Lok Sabha and lapsed in 2019. It is not an Act.

Mains Points

• Courts widened Art. 23:
• Through PIL, the Court treated hunger and low pay as compulsion (PUDR 1982) and made rehabilitation a duty (Neerja Chaudhary 1984).

• Enforcement is still weak. Bonded labour continues in brick kilns, and India has no complete anti-trafficking law after the 2018 Bill lapsed.

• Child labour law has a gap:

• The family-enterprise exception in the 2016 amendment helps poor households.

• But home-based work is hard to inspect, so the exception can hide child labour. This works against Art. 39(e)-(f) and the purpose of Art. 21A.

• Education turned from a promise into a right:

• The ten-year target in the original Art. 45 failed. The courts and then the 86th Amendment made education enforceable.

• Debates go on over the 25% quota (unpaid refunds to private schools, Pramati exempting minority schools) and the no-detention policy (learning levels versus children dropping out).

• A positive right needs money: Art. 21A only works if the State pays for schools and teachers. Its success depends on budgets and teacher numbers, not just on courts.