Right against Exploitation

This right ensures that no human being is exploited in an inhuman or unjust manner. It has two provisions:

Article 23

Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour

What it prohibits

• Traffic in human beings → includes
  (a) Buying and selling of men, women, children like goods
  (b) Immoral trafficking in women and children (prostitution)
  (c) Devadasi system
  (d) Slavery

👉 Punishable under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

• Begar (forced labour without wages):
  • A practice in feudal India where zamindars forced tenants to render free services.
  • Article 23 abolishes begar.
• Other similar forms of forced labour:
  • Includes bonded labour and work under economic compulsion (e.g., accepting less than minimum wage due to poverty).
  • Supported by laws like:
    • Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976
    • Minimum Wages Act, 1948
    • Contract Labour Act, 1970
    • Equal Remuneration Act, 1976

Exception

• State may impose compulsory service for public purposes (e.g., military service, social service).
• But no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, or class.

Nature of Article 23

• Applies to citizens as well as foreigners.
• Protects against State as well as private individuals.

👉 That’s why it’s broader than Article 19 rights (which are citizens-only, and against the State only).

Article 24

What it prohibits

• No child below 14 years shall be employed in:
  • Factories
  • Mines
  • Hazardous activities (construction, railway work, etc.)

👉 However, children may work in innocent/harmless work.

Important laws

• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 → most important.
• Other acts: Factories Act, Mines Act, Merchant Shipping Act, Plantation Labour Act, Motor Transport Workers Act, Bidi & Cigar Workers Act, etc.

Judicial & Government interventions

• 1996 (SC ruling):
  • Directed creation of Child Labour Rehabilitation Welfare Fund → employer must deposit ₹20,000 per child.
  • Directed improvements in education, health, and nutrition.
• Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 → set up National & State Commissions for Child Rights, plus Children’s Courts.
• 2006 Govt. ban: Employment of children below 14 in domestic work, hotels, dhabas, shops, factories, spas, resorts, tea shops, etc.
• 2016 Amendment:
  • Renamed law as Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
  • Expanded scope to cover adolescent labour (14–18 years) in hazardous occupations.

✨ In essence:
The Right against Exploitation converts India’s commitment to human dignity into enforceable law — ensuring no one is treated as property, forced into slavery, or denied childhood by exploitative labour.

Text of Article 23 and 24 (As per the Constitution of India)

Article 23: Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour.— (1) Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law. (2) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purposes, and in imposing such service the State shall not make any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of them. Article 24: Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc.— No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.