CONSTITUTION OF INDIAArticle 24
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24. Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc.—No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
Exam note: Article 24 bans hazardous child labour specifically — it does not ban every form of child work, only factories, mines, and other hazardous employment.
Article 24 bans children under 14 from working in factories, mines, or hazardous jobs. It sits right next to Article 23 in the Right against Exploitation, and the two are almost always tested together.
Must Know
What Article 24 Bans
- The ruleNo child below fourteen years can be employed in a factory, mine, or other hazardous employment..
- Not a total banArticle 24 does not prohibit all child work — only employment in factories, mines, or hazardous conditions..
- Age lineFourteen is the constitutional cut-off, matching the age band later used in Article 21A’s right to education..
- Why it mattersIt is the Constitution’s only Fundamental Right specifically protecting children from hazardous work..
Good to Know
The Enabling Law: Child Labour Act
- 1986The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 banned employing children in specified hazardous occupations, and regulated conditions elsewhere..
- 2016 amendmentRenamed the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, it extended the full employment ban to all occupations for children under 14, not just hazardous ones, with narrow family-business exceptions..
- So whatThe 2016 amendment closed the gap Article 24 itself left open, banning most child employment outright, not just the hazardous kind..
✅ Test Yourself
Work through practice questions on Article 24 and child labour, then keep practising with a random Indian Polity question.
Great to Know
M.C. Mehta v. Tamil Nadu (1996): The Sivakasi Case
- The factsChildren as young as six or seven were working in Sivakasi’s matchstick and fireworks factories, a hazardous industry under Article 24..
- The rulingThe Supreme Court ordered offending employers to pay ₹20,000 per child into a welfare fund, and give one adult family member a job..
- The bigger fixThe judgment led to the National Child Labour Project, combining enforcement with economic rehabilitation of affected families..
- Why it mattersIt linked Article 24’s ban to Article 21’s right to a dignified life, treating child labour as a poverty problem, not just a legal one..
PYQ / Exam Angle
Which Article Bans Child Labour Under 14?
- QuestionExams ask which Article specifically bars children under fourteen from hazardous employment..
- AnswerArticle 24, not Article 21A, which is about education, or Article 39(e)/(f), which are Directive Principles on child welfare..
- TrapOptions confusing Article 24 with the DPSPs on child welfare (Article 39) are common — 24 is the enforceable Fundamental Right; 39 is a non-enforceable directive..
Current Affairs / So What
Child Labour Numbers Still a Concern
- DevelopmentCensus and NSSO data continue to show working children in India despite the 1986/2016 Acts and Article 24..
- Why it mattersIt shows enforcement, not the legal ban itself, remains the harder problem — the same pattern seen with Article 23..
- So whatCurrent-affairs questions on child labour statistics or rescue drives connect back to Article 24..
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