According to Article 24, no child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
This Article is intimately related to a Directive Principle of State Policy which calls upon the State to enforce universal compulsory and free Primary Education to all children in the country up to the age of 14 years. This comes of the realisation that children should prepare during this period for the task of the future as useful and responsible citizens.
Employment of children is an uncivilised and even inhuman practice. It is exploitation. It stunts their growth, corrupts their morals and often drives them to delinquency. Naturally, it must be prohibited and incentives to divert them from employment should be provided.
In spite of the existence of several laws which seek to provide protection of the right against exploitation, there still remain in many parts of the country many forms of exploitation that come within the scope of this right. The efforts so far made by the State in this direction are marked by timidity rather than determination.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
There is an under-current of indifference even in the law-enforcing officials with respect to these rights. Many of them think, for instance, that attempts to close down brothels altogether are foredoomed to failure. Society must awaken to the full realisation that beggar and immoral traffic are the products of poverty and neglect.
A Committee appointed some years ago by the Central Social Welfare Board to go into all aspects of immoral traffic reported that the question of exploitation of women and girls generally, is so closely linked up with prostitution that it is not possible to suggest measures to wipe out the one without taking into consideration the other.
The question cannot be considered except in the context of national progress, full employment, economic advancement, social justice and the general raising of the standard of living of all sections of the people. Nevertheless, the adoption of preventive measures would reduce the incidence of these evil practices. For this, it is necessary for the State to pursue a more vigorous policy.