India’s Anti-Trafficking Bill 2021, geared towards preventing and prosecuting trafficking offences and rehabilitating victims of trafficking, appears to be a well-intentioned move. Trafficking is severe in India, and it has been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed bill expands the scope of offences under trafficking, and also includes cases of cross-border trafficking.
However, the bill has also been widely criticised. This is particularly due to its emphasis on criminalisation and punitive measures, as well as its disinterest in dealing with contributing factors, like impoverishment, which require enduring solutions based in development and welfare policies. The bill mandates reporting of trafficking offences and does not make consent of the victim mandatory in rescue and rehabilitation efforts, thereby overlooking individuals engaged in consensual sex work and victims who do not want to register a criminal complaint. Perhaps most seriously, the bill introduces harsh punishments for trafficking, including the death penalty for aggravated and repeat offences.
Project 39A, the criminal justice research and intervention centre that I work for, has been engaged in empirical and doctrinal research on the administration of the death penalty and the problematic implications of its retention in the Indian legal system. Based on the evidence we have gathered I can say with confidence that the inclusion of the death sentence in the proposed bill will not solve the problem of trafficking. It will, however, add additional complications to an already dysfunctional system.
