A student, on his school assignment, is taking a session on how to make compost at home for using it at a park. Which fundamental duty is he performing?

Correct — B. Making compost and putting it into a park is care of the natural environment, and that is the duty in Article 51A(g): to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures.

Option (b) reproduces that clause almost word for word. The scene turns on what the act does to the environment, not on the student's excellence or method.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity — Excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity is Article 51A(j). It fits any task done well and picks out nothing about composting.
• (c)
  To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry — Scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry is Article 51A(h). Composting applies science, but that duty is about a habit of mind, while the stem is about the environment being improved.
• (d)
  To safeguard public property and to abjure violence — Safeguarding public property and abjuring violence is Article 51A(i). The park is public property, but the student is enriching its soil, not protecting it from damage.

The Fundamental Duties sit in Part IVA, Article 51A, inserted by the 42nd Amendment, 1976, on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee.

The original list had ten duties. The eleventh, clause (k), on a parent or guardian providing education to a child between six and fourteen, was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002.

They are not by themselves enforceable in court, though a court may read them while interpreting a law. SSC turns them into small scenes and asks which clause the scene fits.

Key facts

• Fundamental Duties are in Part IVA, Article 51A, added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976.
• Article 51A(g) is the duty to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life.
• The Swaran Singh Committee recommended inserting Fundamental Duties into the Constitution.
• Article 51A(k), on education for a child aged six to fourteen, was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002.

Common traps

• Clause (h) on scientific temper attracts anyone who reads composting as a science demonstration.
• The letters invert easily: 51A(i) is public property and 51A(j) is excellence, not the other way round.
• A scene can touch two duties, so pick the one the described act is aimed at.

No directly related past PYQ was found.