Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956

Newspapers carry reports of young people lured from villages by the promise of a job in a big city and then trapped. Whatever the headline, the legal question is the same: how does the law reach those who organise, profit from and enable the exploitation of others, and how does it treat those who are its victims? The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 is India's principal statute on commercial sexual exploitation. It targets exploiters, brothel keepers and traffickers, and it contains a rescue and rehabilitation scheme. This topic teaches the Act as a student of law must: from the text, with care and without sensationalism.

In two minutes

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956 punishes the organisation and profit from prostitution, such as keeping a brothel, living on its earnings, procuring, detaining and seducing persons, and provides for rescue, protective homes and rehabilitation, with special police officers and heavier penalties where a child or minor is involved.

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