RAS question
Which Article of the DPSP relates to prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs injurious to health?
Correct answer: (D) Article 47.
Article 47 of the Directive Principles of State Policy requires the State to improve public health and endeavour to prohibit intoxicating drinks and drugs injurious to health, except for medicinal purposes.
Explanation
Article 47 is the DPSP provision linked to public health and prohibition. The Constitution titles it as the State's duty to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. It then says the State must treat nutrition, living standards and public health as primary duties. Within that same health-centred mandate, the State is directed to endeavour to prohibit the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drinks and drugs that are injurious to health. This is why the prohibition part is not a separate moral instruction; it is placed within a broader public-health directive under Article 47.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Article 48 deals with the organisation of agriculture and animal husbandry, including modern and scientific lines of organisation, not intoxicating drinks or drugs.
- (B) Article 46 concerns the educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections, so it is a social-justice directive rather than a public-health prohibition clause.
- (C) Article 43 is about securing work, a living wage and decent conditions of life for workers, not prohibition of substances injurious to health.
Concept
This tests article-wise mapping within the Directive Principles of State Policy. It recurs in RAS because DPSP questions often turn on matching a specific welfare objective to its exact constitutional article.