Fundamental Rights: UPSC Previous Year Questions (Polity)

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct: As under Article 23 (Right Against Exploitation) of the constitution, the expression ‘traffic in human beings’ includes: Selling and buying of men, women and children like goods, Immoral traffic in women and children, including prostitution, Devadasis, Slavery.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Abolition of Untouchability is provided in the Constitution of India but it comes under Right to Equality, under Article 17.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The Cultural and Educational Rights (under Articles 29 and 30) cover protection of interests of minorities; they don’t come under Rights Against Exploitation.

Statement 4 is correct: Article 24 (Right Against Exploitation) ensures prohibition of employment of children in factories etc. The Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 was enacted to provide for the establishment of a National Commission and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights and Children’s Courts for providing speedy trial of offences against children or of violation of child rights.

Explanation

In India, rights and duties are interdependent and complementary. The Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and duties, ensuring that individuals’ freedoms are balanced with responsibilities towards society. Rights, such as freedom of speech and equality, are linked with corresponding duties to prevent harm to others and maintain social order. Fundamental duties, like respecting the Constitution and upholding national sovereignty, are crucial for the stability of the state. Both rights and duties work together to promote justice, equality, and fraternity, as reflected in the Preamble, ensuring the progress and well-being of society and the nation. Similarly, One cannot enjoy their Right to a clean environment if others do not perform their duty of protecting and conserving the environment. Hence, Rights are correlative with Duties.

Explanation

Option (a) is correct: Equality in the society can be maintained by ending the institutional system of inequality and ensuring absence of privileges. The lack of any special privileges for any individual is a concept related to Equality Before Law (which is a British Concept and denotes positive notion). This concept entails equal subjection of all persons to the ordinary law of the land administered by ordinary law courts, and no one is above the law, regardless of their status (rich or poor, high or low, official or not. Options (b), (c) and (d) are incorrect:

Absence of Restraint does not necessarily imply equality in society as restraining the actions of the society curtails the liberty of the individual. Absence of Competition in society may result in monopoly, which would not imply equality, rather inequality in the society. Absence of ideology does not imply equality in society. Ideology is a set of principles or beliefs of a group/institution in the society.

Explanation

Rights are legal, social, or ethical entitlements that individuals possess, often protected by a constitution or laws. In a democracy, rights are claims of citizens against the state, ensuring that the government respects, protects, and upholds their freedoms and dignity. These rights limit the state’s power to interfere in citizens’ personal lives. In India, Fundamental Rights, enshrined in Part III of the Constitution, safeguard individual freedoms by preventing unjust state actions that violate these rights. John Locke argued that natural rights such as life, liberty, and property must be protected by the state.