India recorded as many as 10,659 cases of human trafficking between 2018 and 2022. The data tabled by the Ministry of Home Affairs in response to a question from Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari on December 5 reveals that an average of about 2,000 cases were recorded every year, with 2022 registering the highest of 2250 cases.
In response to another question on the same day by MP Omprakash Bhupalsinh alias Pawan Rajenimbalkar, the MHA revealed details of the number of persons arrested (PAR), person charge-sheeted (PCS), persons convicted (PCT) and persons acquitted (PAC) for the crime between 2018 and 2022. In these five years, 26,840 persons —an average of 5,000 persons per year — were arrested for being involved in human trafficking; the highest was in 2022 — 5648 persons.
The number of persons charge-sheeted stands at 19,821, with an average of 3,500-4,000 persons charge-sheeted every year. The number of persons convicted for the crime, however, remains low — 1,031 convictions in five years, just 4.8% of the persons arrested in the same period. The number of accused who have been acquitted by different courts in the five years stands at 4,936.
Kaushik Gupta, an advocate of the Calcutta High Court and member of the anti-trafficking consortium Tafteesh, said that despite the high number of persons charge-sheeted, the low conviction rate indicated poor investigation by the police.
“These charge sheets do not stand before the court during the trial and thus the acquittal is high and convictions are low,” he said.
Victims turning hostile during the trial process is another reason, he suggested. “There are delays in the disbursement of victim compensation funds and the victims who have been trafficked and have nothing to fall back upon, turn hostile,” he explained.
Trafficking hotspots
Maharastra registered the highest number of cases — 1,392 — in the past five years, followed by Telangana (1,301) and Andhra Pradesh (987).
“When it comes to trafficking, certain States are source and some are destination States. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have become both source and destination,” noted Rammohan, secretary of HELP, a non-governmental organisation based out of Andhra Pradesh. This is because there is a huge population that comes to work in the capital cities of the two States, especially in the construction sector that has boomed since the division of the erstwhile State in 2014, explained the activist, also a member of Tafteesh.
States like West Bengal and Assam are considered source States while Maharashtra and Karnataka are destination States. The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its reply, has also pointed out the steps taken to combat trafficking. This includes upgrading the infrastructure of district anti-human trafficking units and strengthening special intelligence and surveillance mechanisms to identify gangs and gather information about their history and modus operandi.
