Human Trafficking: In the Shadows of the Law

Every nation in the globe is impacted by human trafficking, according to the UN, yet not enough is said about it. 

There is a lot of hush-hush when it comes to discussing human trafficking, almost as if it belongs to the underworld. The grim realities, sadly, are far different where human trafficking exists in bright day light, emboldened by the blind spots of law. Despite the presence of international treaties and national statutes, the crime of human trafficking continues raising its ugly head, sometimes even under the gaze of institutions meant to prevent it.

The bulk of human trafficking incidents go unreported, with estimates indicating that only approximately 0.4 percent of survivors are recognized globally.

A global turning point in human trafficking came with the Palermo Protocol of 2000. With every country being engulfed by the horrors of human trafficking, they have all adopted anti-trafficking laws (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 5). Yet enforcement is uneven. In the United States, despite task forces, prosecutions often fail when victims—usually undocumented migrants—fear deportation more than they trust justice (Chuang 147).

In the Indian context, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 has now replaced the Indian Penal Code as the principal criminal law, and trafficking is specifically dealt with under Sections 143 and 144 of the BNS, 2023, which define the offence of trafficking and the exploitation of trafficked persons and provide for enhanced minimum punishments in aggravated cases. Yet, as recent NCRB Crime in India data show, there is a sharp gap between cases registered and cases ending in conviction: in 2022, 2,250 cases of human trafficking were registered across India, 1,830 were chargesheeted, but only 131 cases resulted in conviction while 545 ended in acquittal or discharge, highlighting serious implementation and trial-level challenges despite stronger statutory language. Cases like the 2013 Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal, where dozens of girls were abused under the protection of a state-funded institution, remind us of that laws without accountability are paper shields.

The Vulnerable and the Voiceless

The main causes of human trafficking are poverty, discrimination, and lack of opportunity. A bonded labourer in a South Asian brick kiln, a woman coerced into sex work in Eastern Europe, or a teenager recruited online through false job promises- each is exploited by a system based on injustice and is larger than themselves (Bales 41). Although we have laws and thick, fat textbooks elucidating in detail the crime and punishment, little relief reaches the margins where victims live.

Recent NCRB data reinforce this gap: between 2018 and 2022, India recorded roughly 1,700–2,300 human trafficking cases every year, with thousands of victims trafficked and rescued annually, but convictions remain in the low hundreds, indicating that many survivors still do not see effective justice or long-term protection at the end of the process. In "Prajwala v. Union of India (2015)", the Supreme Court recognised these systemic failures and pushed the State to strengthen anti-trafficking investigations, shelter homes, and victim-protection mechanisms, but on the ground these directions are still unevenly realised.

Technology: Double-Edged Sword

The spread of human trafficking is widened with the coming of technology. What should have stayed as a tool for human life improvement, is now used by predators to stalk, hunt, and capture illegally their victims. Encrypted apps, online classifieds, and even mainstream social media platforms have become recruitment tools (Latonero 19). Although it must be said technology is retaliating trafficking organizations are being tracked in the United States using AI-driven pattern recognition and hotlines. Tech-based monitoring has also been tried in India, however scaling these systems is still difficult.

In India, digital tools like the Crime Multi-Agency Centre (Cri-MAC), the National Database of Human Trafficking Offenders (NDHTO) and AI-enabled crime analytics integrated into national police networks such as CCTNS are being used to track patterns, share information between States, and identify repeat traffickers. Yet these promising initiatives remain dependent on local capacity, connectivity, and training, and scaling such technology-driven enforcement uniformly across diverse jurisdictions continues to be a major challenge.

What Needs to Change

Prosecution remains a half-hearted solution. True impact and solution lies in a systematic revamp where education, poverty alleviation, and safe migration pathways are adopted. Globally, an estimated 71% of enslaved people are women and girls, while men and boys account for 29%.  We need empathetic systems of counselling, legal aid, and return to society for survivors of human trafficking. We need protected social rehabilitation centres where victims can remain with no fear of re-trafficking (Gallagher 122).

Alongside this, India has begun to experiment with AI-based law enforcement efforts, such as using facial recognition, pattern analysis, and integrated databases to trace missing persons and suspected traffickers, and to coordinate between Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in different States. However, the success of these tech-based solutions is uneven because police infrastructure, cyber-forensics expertise, and funding differ widely from one jurisdiction to another, making it difficult to standardise and sustain these innovations nationwide.

A Call to Vigilance

Human trafficking occurs when we choose to look away, when law is weak and unprotective of its citizen, immigrants, and a human life, when criminals are treated with impunity. Human trafficking is not a distant problem—it is local, immediate, and closer than we think. To uproot this grave atrocity and injustice, we need stronger statutes and stronger community systems of families, schools, employers, and neighbours who refuse to look away.

Recent reforms under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, together with welfare frameworks like Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya, have tried to shift the focus from mere rescue to rehabilitation and long-term support. Under Mission Shakti, for instance, the “Shakti Sadan” component provides integrated relief and rehabilitation homes for women including victims of trafficking, while child care institutions under Mission Vatsalya are meant to care for trafficked children and support their education, healing, and reintegration. For these schemes to work, however, they must be backed by vigilant communities that report suspicious recruitment, placements, and abuse early, and insist that authorities respond.

Our counsellors are just a click away.

Call Me

Conclusion

The fact that human trafficking exits even in the presence of local and global laws and legal aids, its because law alone is not enough. Political will, public awareness, and a culture of empathy must accompany legal frameworks.

The enhanced punishments under Section 143 of the BNS, 2023, and related provisions on exploitation and victim protection, will matter only when people know about them and use them—when community reporting, legal literacy, and survivor-friendly procedures become everyday realities rather than slogans. This means village councils, resident welfare associations, schools, workplaces, transport hubs, and digital platforms all need basic awareness of what constitutes trafficking, how to spot risk, and how to activate legal remedies without further endangering victims.
This will empower our society to move beyond mere words to concrete actions that will eventually help exploited souls living in the dark to step into a future of protection, dignity, and possibilities. In the end, confronting human trafficking is not just about criminal law; it is about affirming the constitutional “right to dignity” and the broader values of justice, equality, and fraternity that underpin our legal system. When law reform (through BNS and BNSS) works in synergy with informed, compassionate communities, the shadows in which trafficking thrives can finally begin to recede. 

References:

• Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press, 2012.
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) – especially Sections 143 and 144 on trafficking and exploitation of trafficked persons.
• Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) – procedural provisions relating to investigation, victim-centric processes, and timelines.
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).
• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA). 
• Chuang, Janie. “Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 158, no. 6, 2010, pp. 1655–1728.
• Gallagher, Anne T. The International Law of Human Trafficking. Cambridge UP, 2010.
• Latonero, Mark. Human Trafficking Online: The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds. USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, 2011.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. United Nations, 2000.
• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Crime in India (Human Trafficking tables, 2018–2022). 
• Prajwala v. Union of India, W.P. (C) No. 56 of 2004, Supreme Court of India, Judgment dated 9 December 2015.
• Government of India. Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya scheme documents and replies to Parliament on human trafficking and victim rehabilitation.