Article 23 and 24 — Right against Exploitation

A construction site in Navi Mumbai hires a labourer from Bihar, advances him ₹20,000, and then refuses to let him leave until the money is worked off. On the same site a ten-year-old carries bricks because his father is the labourer. Nobody signed a forced-labour agreement and nobody held a gun. Is either of them a matter for the Constitution? Articles 23 and 24 say yes, and they say it against the employer, not only against the government.

In two minutes

Article 23 bans traffic in human beings, begar and other forms of forced labour, and makes contravention a punishable offence; Article 24 bans employment of children below fourteen in factories, mines and other hazardous work.

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