Children's Rights: Articles 21A, 24, 39(f) and 45

The Constitution's Map of Childhood

By Aditya Tiwari · Polity faculty, The Cavalier · Lawyer, 10 years teaching law and Polity

The key to this topic is to ask, for each article, who owes what to whom. A Fundamental Right is enforceable against the State in court. A Directive Principle is a goal the State should pursue, and no court can force it. A Fundamental Duty is a moral duty of the citizen, with no direct penalty. Children's provisions use all three.

Notice how the ages stack. Birth to six is covered by Article 45, a directive. Six to fourteen is covered by the right in 21A, the ban in Article 24 and the duty in 51A(k). Fourteen to eighteen is covered by none of them, which is exactly the gap that the 2016 labour law and the JJ Act try to fill. Learn the ages first, and half the questions answer themselves.

Two bits of history help. Article 39(f) originally said only that childhood and youth be protected against exploitation and abandonment; the 42nd Amendment (1976) added healthy development "in conditions of freedom and dignity", the same amendment that added the free legal aid directive. And 51A(k) is the last of the eleven Fundamental Duties, added in 2002.

From Article 45 to Article 21A: The Right to Education

In 1950 the Constitution made a promise it could not enforce. The original Article 45 asked the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they were fourteen, within ten years of the Constitution coming into force. It sat among the Directive Principles, so no child could go to court when 1960 came and went. The story of how it became a right has four steps.

The 86th Amendment did three jobs at once: a new right, a rewritten directive and a new duty. CDS 2025-I trapped students by saying it had "added the Right to Education to the chapter of Directive Principles". It did the opposite, moving the main promise out of the Directive Principles and into Part III, leaving only early-childhood care in Article 45.

The RTE Act then spelt out what "free and compulsory" means. "Free" means no fee, charge or expense that could stop a child from completing elementary education. "Compulsory" puts the duty on the State and local authority to admit, attend and complete. Its main features:

• Who: every child aged 6 to 14, in classes 1 to 8, in a neighbourhood school.
• Admission: no capitation fee and no screening test. A child never schooled is admitted to the age-appropriate class and given special training to catch up.
• The 25 per cent rule (Section 12(1)(c)): private unaided schools must reserve 25 per cent of seats in the entry class for children from weaker and disadvantaged sections. The State reimburses the school the expenditure per child.
• Norms: a prescribed pupil-teacher ratio, trained teachers, a ban on private tuition by teachers, and School Management Committees with parent members.
• No detention: originally no child could be held back or expelled till class 8. Since the 2019 amendment, States may allow detention in classes 5 and 8 after a re-examination.

The private-school quota was challenged at once. In Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India (2012), the Supreme Court upheld the Act, including the 25 per cent quota for unaided schools. Unaided minority institutions were kept outside it.

Protection from Work: Article 24 and the Child Labour Law

Article 24 is short and often misread. It bans the employment of a child below 14 in a factory, mine or other hazardous employment. It does not ban every kind of work. A child lending a hand on the family farm is not what the article targets. Article 24 belongs to the Right against Exploitation (Articles 23 and 24), alongside the ban on trafficking and forced labour in Article 23. As it is a Fundamental Right, it can be enforced against private employers too, and not only the State.

The Supreme Court turned the article into action in M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu (1996), a case on children working in the Sivakasi match and fireworks factories. It ordered an offending employer to pay ₹20,000 per child into a Child Labour Rehabilitation Welfare Fund, directed that alternative work be given to an adult in the child's family, and issued orders for the education, health and nutrition of children.

If every child below 14 must be in school and none may work, the two laws close on each other. The weak spot is the family-enterprise exception, which critics say can hide real work behind the word "help". For parallel bodies that guard human rights more generally, see our page on the NHRC and the Protection of Human Rights Act.

Protection and Justice: JJ Act, POCSO and the Commission

The Constitution gives the framework. Parliament's statutes do the day-to-day protection. Three are worth knowing precisely.

The Constitution itself leaves room for these laws. Article 15(3) is the doorway. Nothing in Article 15 prevents the State from making special provision for women and children, so a law that treats a child differently from an adult is not discriminatory under Article 14 or 15. Courts have also read children's welfare into the right to life under Article 21, and many orders on child labour and schooling began as public interest petitions. How far courts may direct the State is covered on our page on judicial activism and PIL.

How UPSC Has Asked It: Past Papers Solved

UPSC repeats a small set of ideas: which amendment, which article, which duty, and whether something is a right or a directive. These six are from CDS and NDA papers.

Practice MCQs (with answers)

1. Article 24 prohibits employment of children below
   1. 10 years in factories
   2. 12 years in mines
   3. 14 years in factories, mines and other hazardous work
   4. 18 years in any work
2. Article 45, as it now stands, provides for
   1. free and compulsory education from 6 to 14 years
   2. early childhood care and education until the age of six
   3. technical education for adolescents
   4. mid-day meals in all schools
3. In which case did the Supreme Court hold that the right to free education until age 14 flows from Article 21?
   1. Unnikrishnan J.P. v. State of Andhra Pradesh
   2. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala
   3. Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India
   4. Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan
4. Which of the following is a Fundamental Duty added by the 86th Amendment?
   1. To protect and improve the natural environment
   2. To safeguard public property
   3. To value and preserve the composite culture
   4. To provide opportunities for education to one's child or ward aged 6 to 14
5. The 25 per cent reservation of seats for weaker sections in private schools under the RTE Act applies to
   1. unaided non-minority schools
   2. all schools, including minority institutions
   3. only government schools
   4. only colleges
6. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act came into force in
   1. 2006
   2. 2009
   3. 2015
   4. 2012
7. The 2016 amendment of the child labour law bans work by adolescents (14-18) in
   1. all occupations
   2. only agriculture
   3. hazardous occupations
   4. night shifts only
8. Which of these is both a Fundamental Right and, in a different form, a Directive Principle concerning children?
   1. Protection from child marriage
   2. Education
   3. Free legal aid
   4. Right to work

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