Exploitation, Religion, Cultural and Educational Rights

Right Against Exploitation

Prohibition of Traffic in Human Beings and Forced Labour (Article 23)

Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings, begar (forced labour) and other similar forms of forced labour.

• This right is available to both citizens and non-citizens.
• It protects the individual not only against the State but also against private persons.
• The expression ‘traffic in human beings’ includes:
  • Selling and buying of men, women, and children like goods.
  • Immoral traffic in women and children, including prostitution.
  • Devadasis and Slavery.
• To punish these acts, the Parliament has made the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
• The word ‘force’ includes not only physical or legal force but also force arising from the compulsion of economic circumstances.

Exception

• It permits the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes for which it is not bound to pay. For example, military service or social service. However, the State is not permitted to make any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class.

Prohibition of Employment of Children in Factories (Article 24)

Article 24 prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory, mine or other hazardous activities like construction work or railway.

• It does not prohibit their employment in any harmless or innocent work.
• The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, is the most important law in this direction.

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016

• It is renamed as the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
• A child is permitted to work only to help family, in a family enterprise, or as a child artist after school hours or during vacations.
• The amendment has introduced the concept of adolescent labour for the first time.
  • An adolescent has been defined as a person between the ages of 14-18 years.
  • The amendment permits the employment of adolescent labour except in hazardous processes or occupation.
• The offenses under the Act have now been made compoundable and cognizable notwithstanding the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.
• The CL Act provides for the rehabilitation of children and adolescents who have been victims under the provisions of the CL Act.
• It provides for setting up of the Child and Adolescent Labour Rehabilitation Fund in which all the amounts of penalty have to be realized.
• Liability has been affixed upon the parents and guardian of the affected child/children separately from the employers.
• The Act provides for increased penalty and imprisonment which shall not be less than 6 months and may extend up to 2 years and fine which may vary between Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000.
• Previously, the violations under the CL Act were punishable with imprisonment of not less than three months which could extend to one year or/and with a fine of ten thousand rupees which could extend to twenty thousand rupees.

Right To Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Conscience and Free Profession, Practice and Propagation of Religion (Article 25)

• Freedom of conscience: Inner freedom of an individual to mould his/her relation with God or Creatures in whatever way he/she desires.
• Right to profess: Declaration of one’s religious beliefs and faith openly and freely.
• Right to practice: Performance of religious worship, rituals, ceremonies, and exhibition of beliefs and ideas.
• Right to propagate: Transmission and dissemination of one’s religious beliefs to others or exposition of the tenets of one’s religion but it does not include a ‘Right to Convert’ another person to one’s own religion. Article 25 covers not only religious beliefs (doctrines) but also religious practices (rituals). Moreover, these rights are available to all persons—citizens as well as non-citizens. These rights are subject to public order, morality, health and other provisions relating to fundamental rights. The State is permitted to:
• Regulate or restrict any economic, financial, political or other secular activity associated with religious practice.
• Provide for social welfare and reform or throw open Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus.

Freedom to Manage Religious Affairs (Article 26)

• Right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes.
• Right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion.
• Right to own and acquire movable and immovable property.
• Right to administer such property in accordance with the law. The rights under Article 26 are subject to only public order, morality, and health. The Supreme Court held that a religious denomination must satisfy three conditions:

1. It should be a collection of individuals who have a system of beliefs which they regard as conducive to their spiritual well-being.
2. It should have a common organisation.
3. It should be designated by a distinctive name.

Freedom from Taxation for Promotion of a Religion (Article 27)

• No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
• This provision prohibits the only levy of a tax and not a fee. Thus, a fee can be levied on pilgrims to provide them some special service or safety measures.
• A fee can be levied on religious endowments for meeting the regulation expenditure.
• State should not spend the public money collected by way of tax for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion. This means that the taxes can be used for the promotion or maintenance of all religions.

Freedom from Attending Religious Instruction (Article 28)

• No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds.
• This provision shall NOT apply to an educational institution administered by the State but established under any endowment or trust, requiring imparting of religious instruction in such institution.
• No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds shall be required to attend any religious instruction or worship in that institution without his/her consent.
  Thus, Article 28 distinguishes between four types of educational institutions:

1. Institutions wholly maintained by the State: Religious instruction is completely prohibited.
2. Institutions administered by the State but established under any endowment or trust: Religious instruction is permitted.
3. Institutions recognised by the State: Religious instruction is permitted on a voluntary basis.
4. Institutions receiving aid from the State: Religious instruction is permitted on a voluntary basis.

Cultural & Educational Rights

Protection of Interests of Minorities (Article 29)

• Any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same.
• No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, or language. The first provision protects the right of a group while the second provision guarantees the right of a citizen as an individual irrespective of the community to which he belongs. Article 29 grants protection to both the following minorities:
• Religious minorities.
• Linguistic minorities. The Supreme Court held that the scope of this article is not necessarily restricted to minorities only because of the use of words ‘section of citizens’ in the Article that include minorities as well as the majority. However, the term ‘minority’ has not been defined anywhere in the Constitution.

Right of Minorities to Establish & Administer Educational Institutions (Article 30)

• All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
• The compensation amount fixed by the State for the compulsory acquisition of any property of a minority educational institution shall not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed to them.
• In granting aid, the State shall not discriminate against any educational institution managed by a minority. Protection under Article 30 is confined only to minorities (religious or linguistic) and does not extend to any section of citizens (as under Article 29). The right under Article 30 also includes the right of a minority to impart education to its children in its own language.

Right To Property (Now a Legal Right)

• Originally, the right to property was one of the seven fundamental rights under Part III of the Constitution. It was dealt by Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31.
• 44th Amendment Act of 1978 abolished the right to property as a Fundamental Right by repealing Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31 from Part III.
• The Act inserted a new Article 300A in Part XII under the heading ‘Right to Property’. It provides that no person shall be deprived of his property except by authority of law. Thus, the right to property still remains a legal right or a constitutional right, though no longer a fundamental right. It is not a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Part III still carries two provisions which provide for the guaranteed right to compensation in case of acquisition or requisition of the private property by the state.

Cases where compensation has to be paid are:

• When the State acquires the property of a minority educational institution (Article 30).
• When the State acquires the land held by a person under his personal cultivation and the land is within the statutory ceiling limits (Article 31 A).

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Subject: Polity

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