Discuss the Constitutional provisions regarding the rights of children.
Various Constitutional provisions for Children:
Article-15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds only religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. But the state is empowered to make special provisions for women and children.
Article-23 prohibits traffic in human beings and forced labour. Under this article, the Supreme Court in the case of M. C. Mehta vs. State of Tamil Nadu-1997 has held the child labour illegal.
Article-24 expressly provides that children below the age of fourteen shall not be employed to work in any factory or mine or be engaged in any other hazardous employment.
The 86th Amendment Act 2002 has inserted Article 21(A) as a Fundamental Right providing free and compulsory education for the children of six to fourteen years.
Article 39(e) says that the tender age of children are not to be abused.
Article 39 (f), as inserted by the Forty-Second Amendment, directs the state to give children opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. Also, that childhood and youth are to be protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
Article-45, as amended by 86th Amendment Act 2002, now directs the state to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years.
It is also a fundamental duty, as newly inserted by 86th Amendment Act 2002, in Article 51 A(k) that a parent or guardian is to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward, between the age of six and fourteen years.
All these provisions made in our Constitution aim at all over development of children.
Topics: GS-II: Salient Features Significant Provisions of Constitution