Human Trafficking in India: Domestic and International Dimensions

Every year, thousands of people – mostly women and children from the most vulnerable sections of society – are bought, sold, and exploited across state and national borders. Human trafficking is not a distant, abstract crime. It happens in brick kilns, behind the locked doors of urban homes, along national highways, and in red-light districts of major cities. Understanding the domestic and international dimensions of this crisis is essential – not just for legal awareness, but for recognising the deeply structural nature of the problem.

What is human trafficking? 🔗

At its core, human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of persons through force, fraud, coercion, or deception for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation can take many forms – forced labour, sexual slavery, domestic servitude, begging rings, or even organ harvesting. A critical point often misunderstood is that trafficking does not always involve kidnapping or physical movement across borders. Many victims are lured with promises of legitimate employment, education, or marriage, only to find themselves trapped in exploitative conditions with no means of escape.

The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report consistently identifies India as a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons. This means people are trafficked from India to other countries, trafficked through India on the way to a third country, and trafficked into India from neighbouring nations – all simultaneously.

The domestic dimension: trafficking within borders 🔗

The vast majority of trafficking in India is domestic – occurring within the country itself. Some estimates suggest that roughly 90% of trafficking is interstate rather than international. Victims are moved from economically weaker states to more prosperous urban centres, driven by poverty, lack of education, caste-based discrimination, and the search for livelihoods.

Who are the most vulnerable? 🔗

Women and girls from marginalised communities – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and economically backward classes – are disproportionately affected. The state of Jharkhand, home to a large tribal population, has become a hub for so-called “placement agencies” that recruit girls under the guise of domestic work, only to subject them to exploitation. States like Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh are prominent source regions, while Maharashtra, Delhi, and Telangana serve as major destination states.

Children are especially vulnerable. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the central government has been providing financial assistance to all states and union territories for setting up Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) across districts. Yet, the actual number of children rescued remains inconsistent, and under-reporting continues to be a major challenge.

Forms of domestic trafficking 🔗

Domestic trafficking takes several forms, each affecting different demographics in distinct ways:

Forced labour and bonded labour: Men, women, and children are trafficked into brick kilns, textile factories, stone quarries, and agricultural fields. Many are trapped through debt bondage – they accept a cash advance or loan and are then forced to work indefinitely to “repay” the debt, which keeps growing due to exploitative interest rates. NGO estimates suggest that forced and bonded labour affects anywhere from 20 to 65 million people, making it one of the largest forms of modern slavery anywhere in the world.

Sexual exploitation: Women and girls are trafficked into brothels, dance bars, and roadside establishments for commercial sexual exploitation. This is not limited to metropolitan red-light districts. It happens in small towns and along highways. In some parts of the country, women from the lowest castes are subjected to customary practices like the Devadasi system, where they are “married” to a temple deity but in practice are sexually exploited by upper-caste men.

Child trafficking for begging and petty crime: Organised gangs abduct or purchase children and force them into begging rings in large cities. According to some reports, there are an estimated 300,000 child beggars in India, many of whom are controlled by criminal networks. Children are also trafficked for use in illegal activities, domestic servitude, and, in some conflict-affected areas, as combatants.

Organ trafficking: Though less widely discussed, trafficking for the removal of organs is a documented reality. Victims from economically weaker backgrounds are deceived or coerced into giving up kidneys and other organs through illicit hospital networks.

The international dimension: cross-border trafficking 🔗

While domestic trafficking accounts for the bulk of cases, cross-border trafficking is a significant and growing concern. India shares porous borders with Nepal and Bangladesh – two countries from which a large number of women and girls are trafficked into India, primarily for sexual exploitation. The Organised Crime Index has noted that these porous borders make interdiction difficult.

Trafficking from neighbouring countries 🔗

Women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh are frequently lured with false promises of employment or marriage. Once in India, they are sold into brothels or forced into domestic servitude. Traffickers also exploit women and girls from Central Asia, Europe, and Africa for commercial sexual exploitation, particularly in tourist-heavy regions like Goa. The open border between India and Nepal, which allows free movement of citizens between the two countries, makes trafficking particularly hard to detect and intercept.

Indian nationals trafficked abroad 🔗

On the other side of the spectrum, Indian migrant workers – particularly those seeking employment in low-skilled sectors like construction and domestic work – are trafficked into countries in the Gulf region, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Unregistered recruitment agents promise lucrative jobs abroad but charge exorbitant fees, trapping workers in debt bondage upon arrival. As the TIP Report 2024 highlighted, unregistered sub-agents frequently operate online and without oversight, charging migrant workers well above the legally permitted documentation fees.

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this problem significantly. As unemployment surged, traffickers found it easier to lure desperate individuals with cash advances, only to trap them in cycles of bonded labour both within India and overseas.

Legal framework: laws that address trafficking 🔗

India has a multi-layered legal architecture to combat trafficking, though its effectiveness remains a subject of debate.

Constitutional provisions 🔗

The foundation lies in Article 23 of the Constitution, which explicitly prohibits trafficking in human beings and forced labour. Any violation of this provision is a punishable offence. This constitutional mandate provides the legal basis for all subsequent anti-trafficking legislation.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Section 143) 🔗

With the replacement of the Indian Penal Code by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in July 2024, the earlier provisions under Sections 370 and 370A of the IPC have been replaced by Section 143 of the BNS. This section defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, transfer, or receipt of a person through threats, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or inducement – for the purpose of exploitation.

The punishments under Section 143 are graded based on the severity of the offence. A basic trafficking offence attracts rigorous imprisonment of 7 to 10 years with a fine. If more than one person is trafficked, the punishment extends to 10 years up to life imprisonment. Trafficking a child carries a minimum of 10 years, and trafficking multiple children carries a minimum of 14 years. Notably, if a public servant or police officer is involved in trafficking, the prescribed penalty is life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural life – a provision designed to address the problem of official complicity.

An important feature of this section is that the consent of the victim is irrelevant. Even if a person appears to have agreed to the arrangement, the offence of trafficking is established as long as exploitative methods like coercion, fraud, or inducement were used.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 🔗

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) is India’s primary legislation specifically targeting trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. Originally enacted in 1956 as the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act (SITA), it was amended and renamed in 1986 to broaden its scope and include male victims.

The ITPA criminalises activities like running or managing a brothel, living on the earnings of prostitution, procuring or inducing a person into prostitution, and detaining anyone in premises where prostitution is carried on. It also provides for the appointment of special police officers, establishment of protective homes for rescued victims, and powers of search and rescue by law enforcement.

However, the ITPA has significant limitations. It primarily addresses trafficking for sexual exploitation and does not adequately cover trafficking for other forms of exploitation such as forced labour, domestic servitude, or organ removal. Critics also point out that certain provisions – like those penalising solicitation – can end up criminalising the very victims the law is supposed to protect.

Other relevant laws 🔗

Several other statutes supplement the anti-trafficking framework. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 targets debt bondage and forced labour. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (amended in 2016) restricts the employment of children. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 specifically addresses sexual offences against children, including those arising from trafficking situations. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 provides a framework for the care and rehabilitation of trafficked children.

Institutional mechanisms and their challenges 🔗

Beyond legislation, India has established several institutional mechanisms to combat trafficking. The Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs), set up across districts with funding from the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Nirbhaya Fund, serve as specialised law enforcement bodies. The government allocated 2 billion INR to the 2024-2025 Nirbhaya Fund to support victim services, establish new AHTUs, and train investigation officers.

In March 2024, the MHA also issued guidelines requiring states to establish an Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau (AHTB) at each state police headquarters to improve coordination between district-level AHTUs and across state borders. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has also been active, issuing notices to states and conducting research on missing children and the effectiveness of shelter homes.

Where enforcement falls short 🔗

Despite these measures, enforcement and protection mechanisms remain weak. Conviction rates are alarmingly low. According to an analysis by the Social Policy Research Foundation (SPRF), only about one-tenth of suspects from over 10,000 cases registered between 2018 and 2022 were actually convicted. The government investigated at least 316 trafficking cases between April 2023 and March 2024, but civil society organisations reported even these figures may not capture the full picture.

Several structural issues contribute to this gap. Inter-state coordination remains weak – trafficking often involves movement across multiple state jurisdictions, but police forces tend to operate in silos. Many states do not effectively utilise national communication platforms meant for sharing information on missing persons and trafficking cases. Victim identification is inconsistent, and rescued individuals often fail to receive timely compensation or rehabilitation support. Courts rarely award restitution, and even when compensation is ordered, payments are delayed due to a lack of state funds.

The absence of a comprehensive national anti-trafficking law that covers all forms of trafficking – not just sexual exploitation – remains a critical gap. The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2018 but lapsed without being passed. Its revival, with necessary modifications, would go a long way in creating a unified legal framework.

The human cost: what victims endure 🔗

The consequences of trafficking extend far beyond the immediate exploitation. Trafficked individuals suffer severe physical and psychological harm. Women and girls forced into sexual slavery face high risks of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Physical violence and malnutrition are routine. Psychologically, survivors often experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and a deep sense of shame that makes reintegration into society extremely difficult.

Rehabilitation remains a patchy affair. While state and district legal services are mandated to provide legal assistance to victims, the quality of these services varies widely. Protective homes and shelter facilities exist on paper, but many are poorly funded, understaffed, and sometimes even unsafe. The lack of long-term reintegration support – including education, vocational training, and financial assistance – means that rescued victims are often at risk of being re-trafficked.

What needs to change 🔗

Addressing trafficking effectively requires a multi-pronged approach. First, prevention must target the root causes – poverty, lack of education, caste-based discrimination, and gender inequality. Economic empowerment programmes, especially in source districts, can reduce vulnerability. Second, enforcement must be strengthened through better inter-state coordination, specialised training for police and prosecutors, and the effective use of technology for tracking missing persons and trafficking networks. Third, protection and rehabilitation must be centred on the survivor’s needs – timely compensation, quality shelter, healthcare, psychological support, and pathways to economic independence. Finally, there needs to be greater accountability – for traffickers, for complicit officials, and for a system that too often treats trafficking as a low-priority crime.

What do you think? Given that India has multiple laws and institutional mechanisms in place, what do you believe is the biggest barrier to effectively combating trafficking – is it a problem of inadequate laws, weak enforcement, or the deeply entrenched socio-economic conditions that make people vulnerable in the first place?

References

1. https://www.state.gov/reports/2025-trafficking-in-persons-report/india/
2. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2039058
3. https://ocindex.net/
4. https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-trafficking-in-persons-report/india/
5. https://sanhita.ai/en/bns/chapter-6-of-offences-affecting-the-human/section-143-trafficking-of-person
6. https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15378/1/the_immoral_traffic_(prevention)_act,_1956.pdf
7. https://sprf.in/shadows-in-the-margins-a-look-at-trafficking-among-indias-vulnerable-communities/