CDS (II) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 82 of 120

Correct — D, 86th Amendment Act. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 made education a fundamental right by inserting Article 21A, which directs the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may by law determine. The same amendment did two more things that are often asked separately. It recast Article 45, which had until then covered children up to fourteen, so that the Directive Principle now speaks of early childhood care and education for children below the age of six. And it added a new fundamental duty at Article 51A(k), placing on a parent or guardian the duty to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward between the ages of six and fourteen. The enabling law followed seven years later as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

• (a)83rd Amendment Act — The 83rd Amendment, 2000 dealt with panchayats in Arunachal Pradesh, exempting the state from reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes because it has no Scheduled Caste population. Nothing to do with education.
• (b)84th Amendment Act — The 84th Amendment, 2001 froze the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and in the State Legislative Assemblies on the population figures of the 1971 census until after 2026, while allowing constituency boundaries within states to be redrawn. It is a delimitation amendment.
• (c)85th Amendment Act — The 85th Amendment, 2001 gave Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe government servants consequential seniority on promotion under the reservation rules, with retrospective effect. It belongs to service law, not to education.

Article 21A sits inside Part III, so the right it creates is enforceable against the State like any other fundamental right, and it grew directly out of the Supreme Court's reading of the right to life. Before 2002 education for children was only a Directive Principle under the old Article 45, which had asked the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to fourteen within ten years of the Constitution's commencement. Making it a fundamental right, adding a matching fundamental duty on parents and leaving early childhood care under the Directive Principles was one coherent package.

The four options are four consecutive amendments of the same period, which is what makes the item hard — none of them is absurd. The reliable anchor is that this cluster of numbers belongs to 2000 to 2002, and that the education amendment is the last of the four. Keep the trio together and the whole family of questions falls: Article 21A is the fundamental right, Article 45 is now early childhood care and education below six, and Article 51A(k) is the parent's duty for the six-to-fourteen band. A separate question asking which fundamental duty was added in 2002 has the same amendment as its answer.

• The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21A — free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen.
• The same amendment recast Article 45 to cover early childhood care and education for children below the age of six.
• It also inserted Article 51A(k), the fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to provide education opportunities for a child aged six to fourteen.
• Article 21A is in Part III, so the right is enforceable against the State.
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is the law made under Article 21A.

• Reaching for the 42nd Amendment because it added the original fundamental duties; the education duty came in 2002.
• Mixing up the age bands — six to fourteen for the right and the duty, below six for the Directive Principle.
• Confusing the constitutional amendment of 2002 with the statute of 2009.

As a match-the-amendment-to-its-subject item, or as a statements question on what the 86th Amendment changed.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 21A of the Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children of which age group?

  • (a)Below six years
  • (b)Six to fourteen years
  • (c)Six to sixteen years
  • (d)Fourteen to eighteen years

  Answer(b) Six to fourteen years — children below six are covered by the Directive Principle in Article 45.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following fundamental duties was added by the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002?

  • (a)To abide by the Constitution and respect the National Flag
  • (b)To protect and improve the natural environment
  • (c)To provide opportunities for education to one’s child or ward between six and fourteen years
  • (d)To safeguard public property and abjure violence

  Answer(c) To provide opportunities for education to one’s child or ward between six and fourteen years — Article 51A(k).