Article 46 — Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections

The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

Source: Constitution of India, as published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Article 46 is the DPSP counterpart to the Fundamental Rights provisions in Articles 15, 16, and 17 that prohibit caste discrimination. It goes further by imposing a positive duty on the state to actively promote the interests of SC and ST communities, an early articulation of what would later be called affirmative action or positive discrimination. The article was central to Ambedkar's vision of the Constitution as an instrument for annihilating untouchability and addressing the millennia-old deprivation of lower-caste communities. The word 'exploitation' was deliberately broad, encompassing bonded labour, denial of access to common resources, and economic discrimination.

• Article 15
• Article 16
• Article 17
• Article 330
• Article 335

Last reviewed: 3 July 2026