Education and Social Justice — Amendments

Amendment	Year	Description	Impact
86th Constitutional Amendment Act	2002	This landmark amendment inserted Article 21A into the Constitution, making the Right to Education a Fundamental Right for children between 6 and 14 years of age. It also modified Article 45, shifting its focus to early childhood care and education for children below six years, and added Article 51A(k) as a Fundamental Duty for parents/guardians to provide educational opportunities to their children.	Transformed education from a Directive Principle to an enforceable Fundamental Right, laying the constitutional foundation for the Right to Education Act, 2009. It significantly strengthened the legal framework for universal elementary education and underscored the State's obligation in this regard.
93rd Constitutional Amendment Act	2005	This amendment inserted clause (5) into Article 15, empowering the State to make special provisions, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions, including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30.	Provided the constitutional basis for reservations for OBCs, SCs, and STs in private unaided educational institutions (excluding minority institutions), thereby expanding the scope of affirmative action in higher education and addressing the P.A. Inamdar judgment.