Introduction

Two real episodes from India's own history show what having a right on paper is worth if it is never enforced. In 1982, contractors engaged for Asian Games construction work employed poor migrant labourers on stadiums and flyovers, paying them less than the government's own minimum wage and housing them in dismal conditions. When social scientists studying their plight petitioned the Supreme Court, the Court held that paying less than the legal minimum wage amounted to forced labour -- a direct violation of the Fundamental Right against exploitation -- and ordered the government to ensure the workers were properly paid. The second episode is starker still: Machal Lalung was arrested in Assam in 1951 on a minor charge, declared unfit to stand trial, and sent to judicial custody -- not as a punishment, but supposedly only until his trial could be held. He was finally released in 2005, at the age of 77, after 54 years in custody, without a trial ever having taken place. Both cases make the same underlying point: a right recognised on paper protects no one unless a person can also demand its enforcement by the state. In the work …