The Right against Exploitation is contained in:

The Right against Exploitation is a category of Fundamental Rights in Part III, made up of Articles 23 and 24.

What the two Articles do:

• They ban the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory, mine or other hazardous employment.
• They prohibit traffic in human beings, begar (forced work without payment) and other similar forms of forced labour.
• Any breach of these prohibitions is an offence punishable by law.

Who is protected:

These rights protect all persons, citizens as well as non-citizens.

They are also available against private persons, not only against the State. This is unusual among Fundamental Rights.

Exception:

The State may impose compulsory service for public purposes, such as military service or social service. While doing so, it cannot discriminate on grounds of religion, race, caste or class.

Laws passed to give effect to these rights:

• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
• The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.
• The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, later amended in 2016 to ban the employment of children below 14 in all occupations.
• The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Contract Labour Act, 1970 also help to prevent exploitation.

Important judgments:

In the People's Union for Democratic Rights case (1982), the Supreme Court held that paying less than the minimum wage amounts to forced labour.

In the M.C. Mehta case (1996), the Court gave directions on the rehabilitation of child workers.

Related provisions:

The Directive Principles ask the State to protect children from exploitation, and the Fundamental Duties ask parents to provide educational opportunities to their children.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Articles 21 and 22 deal with life, liberty and protection against arrest.
• ✗Articles 25 and 26 deal with religion.
• ✗Articles 29 and 30 form a separate category of rights.