New Delhi: Poor inter-state coordination worsens India’s crippling shortage of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs), with larger networks of traffickers evading arrest and only low-level operators targeted, says a new report by Sanjog India, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
Operational challenges include AHTUs also focusing on other crimes, such as those against children, besides the misclassification of trafficking as labour violation, kidnapping or fraud, the report says, quoting the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of last year as enumerating just 827 AHTUs nationwide, and only 20 in border districts.
Sanjog India describes itself as a “systems-thinking, global civil society and social impact organisation” that works against gender-based violence, exploitative migration, and trafficking of persons.
The study brings together Right to Information (RTI) data, field observations, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and survivor testimonies.The findings are a part of the report—Strengthening Anti-Human Trafficking Systems in India: A Longitudinal RTI and Field-Based Inquiry into AHTU Functionality (2010–2025)—released last month. Nisha Mehroon, Portfolio Director—Access to Justice Programmes, Sanjog India, said in statement that the national report assessed AHTU functionality in India across three research phases under a watch initiative that stretched from 2010 to last year.
AHTU functionality remains asymmetrical across India, says the report, dividing states and Union Territories (UTS) into three categories: high, moderate, and lowest efficiency.
States that show strong performance in case-filing autonomy and activity include Telangana, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Delhi. Those that are stable but exhibit partial functionality across phases include Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Units where functionality remains unclear or is absent include Meghalaya and Assam. The states with the most human trafficking cases from 2021 to 2023 include Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, Bihar and Assam.
Mehroon told ThePrint that human trafficking remains a significant challenge in India, particularly as trafficking networks become increasingly organised, inter-state and linked to labour and sexual exploitation. “Our research suggests that while important anti-trafficking structures have been established across the country, persistent gaps in staffing, resources, autonomy, and coordination continue to affect their effectiveness.”
She said strengthening AHTUs is not just an institutional priority, “but a critical step towards ensuring that survivors can access timely protection, rehabilitation, compensation, and justice”.
Numbers don’t tell complete tale
At the national level, reported human trafficking cases declined from 8,132 cases in 2016 to 2,183 cases in 2023. “While this numerical decline may appear to indicate progress, it must be interpreted cautiously within the broader institutional and data transparency landscape,” the report says.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the number of cases registered under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act from 2019 to 2023 are 1,639, 1,294, 1,678, 1,497 and 2,166 in chronological order.
An online analytical tool called the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) has been launched to monitor and track police investigations in sexual offences as per the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (now included in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita). It enables regular review of case investigation by the states and UTs, and shows an increase in the compliance rate from 44.4 percent in 2018 to 61.5 percent in 2023.
Even after 15 years of research and policy-making, the quoted TIP report says, formal notification of AHTUs as police stations with First Information Report (FIR) powers remains inconsistent and poorly documented across the country.
In February, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the government has provided financial assistance to all states and Union Territories for upgrading or setting up AHTUs covering all districts. Of the 827 functional AHTUs now, 807 are in states and UTs, the Border Security Force (BSF) hosts 15, and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has five.
AHTU personnel are frequently burdened with general policing duties, significantly reducing their ability to focus on trafficking investigations and survivor support.
“Survivor testimonies, field observations, and RTI data consistently point to a significant difference between the intended mandate of AHTUs and their operational reality. Survivors frequently reported that AHTU officials were overburdened with general policing responsibilities and often unavailable due to additional charges unrelated to trafficking cases. Officers themselves acknowledged pressure, noting the difficulty of managing both local police duties and AHTU responsibilities simultaneously,” says the report.
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A concern for police units
Data provided by states and UTs for the NCRB report of 2024 shows 2,135 cases of human trafficking registered by AHTUs in 2024. In the previous year, 2,183 cases were registered, and 2,250 in 2022. The most cases were registered in Telangana with 423; Maharashtra followed with 337, and Andhra Pradesh with 159 cases. Delhi reported 65 cases in 2024, down from 106 in 2022 and 117 cases in 2023.
A senior police officer from Delhi Police’s AHTU Unit told ThePrint, “Cases pertaining to human trafficking in Delhi are usually complaints we receive for bonded labour where women and children are trafficked from other parts of the country and brought to Delhi.”
Another Delhi Police officer said immediate action is taken on every complaint. “Along with Sub-Divisional Magistrates and NGOs, with whom we have tied up, we keep taking routine action. We also keep checking red-light areas in order to identify complaints.”
Kamla Market Police Station, covering Delhi’s infamous prostitution zone, deals with cases pertaining to similar matters and quick action is taken, an officer said.
In the border states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two senior AHTU police officers told ThePrint, the porous border of Nepal acts as a major challenge, where children are lured to cross the border for work or leave home on their own.
“The SSB is deployed across the border, but the residents know the key points, which acts as a challenge. When we work on such cases, many times, parents don’t show up during investigation. They also lose hope, but our teams have found children even after many years,” said an AHTU unit officer from Uttar Pradesh tasked with the Indo-Nepal border security.
He pointed out that the work for AHTUs increases dramatically, but the work force remains a challenge. “There aren’t that many officers on ground with the team. This acts as a deterrent.” The rules, however, say an inspector, two sub-inspectors, two head constables and two constables are mandatory.
Mission Bihar
Bihar is pretty much the same story, with a couple of added twists.
A senior police officer said that coordination is key, which at times becomes yet another challenge. “AHTU has many stakeholders. It includes NGOs, ministries like Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Labour and Employment, and state police forces. It is crucial to keep everybody in loop, but at times, documentation gets delayed. It would be crucial to have monthly meetings with all key stakeholders,” the officer said.
The challenge for the Bihar Police is bonded labour, mostly child labour at brick kilns. Another key issue is travelling orchestras that employ women and children, making them prone to prostitution and sexual abuse
“In most investigations, we found that parents are sometimes forced to send their kids from backward areas to big cities. We have identified kingpins concentrated in certain areas, so we try to bridge that gap. They act as feeders for child-trafficking and bonded labour,” he said.
A case from Bihar is fairly typical of how trafficking, and the system to combat it, work. In March last year, two young pre-teen girls went missing from the industrial town of Hajipur. The parents took a whole week to inform the police, said Rakesh Kumar Singh, a member of Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. “The socio-economic background of the area is lower middle class. Most people work in industries and factories,” he said.
Even when the police was informed, the investigation simply didn’t pick up pace. “So, the Commission sought information from the departments concerned. We sent them notices, seeking their response. We told them the girls must be found in 48 hours. And when the police got into action, they did find them.”
Singh said the two girls were found in Sonpur, Chhapra. “A gang working for human trafficking had kidnapped them. They were planning to send them to another city. A male and female member of the gang were arrested under the Immoral Trafficking Act.”
Talking about Bihar, Singh said awareness on child trafficking is slowly developing slowly in remote areas. There have been multiple instances of children either running away towards the Nepal border, or to big cities, and there have been trafficking cases as well, he said.
“Most parents in these areas are working day and night at factories and facilities. Many have left homes to work as migrant labourers. There is knowledge, but no awareness on what to do when your child goes missing. We have developed informal sources in each district, town, and village, so we keep an eye. Once flagged, we alert the district authorities and press them into action.”
Singh said, when a child goes missing, the onus is first on the officials, and then the parents. “The map of the trafficking network that existed 15-20 years ago, has slowly changed, due to government intervention. Schools have vocational training. Children have access to social media. People are also actively moving out of villages. Commissions like ours are important—because we monitor the investigation, and take suo motu cognisance.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)