“human Trafficking” in India Before and After the Criminal Amendment Act, 2013

Abstract

The Criminal Amendment Act, 2013 is a replica of the Justice Verma Committee report on sexual offenses against women. The committee, in its report emphasized the need to criminalize human trafficking in India to prevent it and provide justice to its victims effectively. In a special rapporteur report on the violence against women submitted to the UNCHR1 in the year 2000, the inadequacy of an appropriate definition of human trafficking has been observed as a loophole in the existing legal system that enables the offenders to escape from criminal liabilities. Later, a suitable definition was formulated under Article 3 of Trafficking Protocol2 by UN General Assembly and the same was adopted and incorporated by the Indian government under Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code. Through this study, the researchers aim to study the need to have a broad and comprehensive definition for the offense of human trafficking. Further, the authors will adopt a theoretical research method to understand the impact that the criminal offense of human trafficking is having on Indian society.