Articles 23–24

Article 23 — Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour. This bars traffic in human beings (including buying and selling of human beings, e.g. slavery, the devadasi system, and trafficking of women and children), begar (a form of forced labour without payment), and other similar forms of forced labour (bonded labour, for instance). Its contravention is a punishable offence under ordinary law. Unusually among Fundamental Rights, Article 23 is enforceable against private individuals as well as the State — it doesn't merely restrain government action, it directly outlaws certain private conduct. In People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India (1982) (the "Asiad Workers case"), the Supreme Court held that paying workers less than the minimum wage amounts to "forced labour" within the meaning of Article 23, dramatically widening the article's reach into ordinary labour-law violations.

Article 24 — Prohibition of child labour. No child below the age of 14 years can be employed to work in any factory, mine, or engaged in any other hazardous employment. This is supplemented by the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (amended 2016) and reinforced by Article 21A and Directive Principle 39(f), which together create a constitutional architecture pushing children of that age band into schools rather than workplaces.