Protection against exploitation

1. Constitutional scope and the rights framework

Protection against exploitation translates constitutional liberty into safeguards against domination in everyday economic life. Formal freedom is inadequate when a person must work under threats, debt bondage or extreme economic compulsion. Articles 23 and 24 therefore impose limits on the treatment of workers and children, including within private employment relationships. Unlike rights framed primarily as restraints on government action, these provisions expressly reach forms of exploitation practised by private persons.

Article 23(1) prohibits traffic in human beings, begar and other similar forms of forced labour. Any contravention is an offence punishable in accordance with law. Trafficking involves treating people as objects of recruitment, transfer or control for exploitation; it is not confined to sexual exploitation. Begar is compelled service without payment. The wider phrase covering similar forced labour prevents employers from escaping constitutional scrutiny merely by paying a nominal wage.

Article 24 states that no child below fourteen shall be employed in a factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment. Its constitutional wording does not prohibit every conceivable form of child work. However, Parliament may enact wider restrictions, as it has done through child-labour legislation. Neither Article 23 nor Article 24 is limited to Indian citizens.

• Article 23: trafficking, begar and similar forced labour.
• Article 24: an age-specific prohibition concerning factories, mines and hazardous employment.
• Exam distinction: the constitutional minimum and the wider statutory framework must not be treated as identical.

2. Forced labour, compulsory service and Supreme Court interpretation

Article 23(2) permits the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes. While imposing such service, it cannot discriminate on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class, or any of them. This is a qualified exception for public purposes, not permission for private employers to compel labour. For objective questions, note the exact list: sex and place of birth are not expressly listed in this clause, although other constitutional equality guarantees continue to apply.

In People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, 1982, concerning workers on Asian Games construction projects, the Supreme Court interpreted force broadly. It held that force may arise from economic circumstances, not just physical threats or legal compulsion. Labour extracted for less than the applicable minimum wage falls within Article 23's prohibition of forced labour. The decision also established that public authorities cannot disregard violations merely because contractors directly employ the workers.

In Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan, 1983, the Court held that workers engaged in famine-relief work could not be paid below minimum wages merely because the work was part of a relief programme. In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, 1984, concerning quarry workers, it linked the identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers with constitutional obligations. Together, these cases make protection substantive: apparent consent does not necessarily establish genuine freedom.

• Payment alone does not establish that labour is voluntary.
• Economic vulnerability can constitute the force relevant to Article 23.
• Government welfare or relief objectives do not justify extracting labour below legally applicable minimum wages.

3. Statutory safeguards against trafficking and bonded labour

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 abolishes the bonded labour system and extinguishes liability to repay bonded debt. Bondage may arise from an advance, inherited obligation, customary arrangement or similar dependency that restricts a person's freedom to choose employment, move freely or receive lawful remuneration. Not every loan-linked employment arrangement automatically amounts to bondage; the coercive conditions and statutory definition must be examined.

The Act provides for enforcement through district authorities and vigilance committees. Effective implementation requires identifying bonded labourers, securing their release, addressing unlawful debt claims, prosecuting offenders and enabling rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is particularly important because a person released without livelihood support, housing, documentation or access to social protection can be pushed back into the same dependency.

Trafficking is addressed through criminal law and specialised legislation. Sections 143 and 144 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 deal respectively with trafficking of persons and exploitation of a trafficked person. The Sanhita came into force on 1 July 2024. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 addresses trafficking-related commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking, bonded labour and child labour can overlap, but they are distinct legal categories and should not be used interchangeably.

• A movement across an international border is not necessary for trafficking.
• Debt cancellation and rehabilitation distinguish anti-bondage intervention from a simple wage-recovery exercise.
• Interstate coordination is important where recruiters, workplaces and victims' home districts are located in different States.

4. Child labour, education and supporting constitutional provisions

The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 was substantially amended in 2016. It generally prohibits employment or work of children below fourteen in all occupations and processes, subject to specified exceptions. It separately defines adolescents as persons who have completed fourteen but not eighteen years, and prohibits their employment in hazardous occupations and processes specified in the Schedule. The adolescent prohibition is therefore not a blanket ban on all employment.

The exceptions for children are limited and conditional. A child may help the family or a family enterprise, other than in scheduled hazardous occupations or processes, after school hours or during vacations. A child may also work as an artist in specified audiovisual entertainment or sports activities, except a circus, subject to safeguards. Such work must not affect school education. These exceptions have attracted concern because informal production and subcontracting can conceal commercial employment as family assistance.

Article 21A guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen. Article 39(e) directs the State to prevent abuse of workers' health and strength and children's tender age; Article 39(f) addresses children's healthy development, dignity and protection against exploitation and abandonment. Article 45 concerns early childhood care and education below six. Article 51A(k) places a duty on parents or guardians to provide educational opportunities to children or wards aged six to fourteen. These provisions complement, but do not replace, Article 24.

• The Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002 inserted Article 21A and Article 51A(k), and substituted Article 45.
• The Gurupadswamy Committee, 1979 is an important milestone in the development of India's child-labour policy.
• Education, nutrition and family income security help prevent withdrawn children from returning to work.

5. Enforcement, remedies and examination approach

Victims and public-interest petitioners can seek constitutional remedies under Article 32 before the Supreme Court and Article 226 before High Courts. Article 226 also extends to other legal rights. Labour authorities, police, district administrations and child-protection institutions have complementary responsibilities. Courts provide accountability, but constitutional protection depends on field-level identification, accessible complaints, timely investigation and sustained rehabilitation.

Implementation is difficult in dispersed workplaces such as households, farms, brick kilns, small workshops and subcontracted supply chains. Migrant status, caste disadvantage, withheld wages, threats and lack of records can reduce the ability to complain. An effective response combines enforcement with schooling, social protection, safe migration support and employer accountability. For Prelims, distinguish fundamental rights from Directive Principles, identify the precise age thresholds and remember that an apparently voluntary employment contract does not override Article 23.

• Do not confuse the prohibition of untouchability under Article 17 with the Right against Exploitation under Articles 23–24.
• Do not infer that Article 24 itself bans every form of employment below eighteen.
• Distinguish rescue, which ends immediate exposure, from rehabilitation, which addresses the conditions enabling exploitation.

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