SEMESTER-I

A RESEARCH PAPER ON:

“HINDU CODE BILL AND THE IMMORAL

TRAFFIC (PREVENTION) ACT, 1956”

SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. (DR) NAZIMA MUNSHI

SUBMITTED BY:
PAHUL WADHWA
FIRST YEAR B.A LLB (HONS.) – DIVISION B

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. No. PARTICULARS Page No.

1) Abstract 03

2) Introduction 04

3) Present Scenario 06

4) Literature Review 11

5) Supreme Court Case 13

6) Comparison 15

7) Future Scope 16

8) Recommendation 16

9) Conclusion 17

10) Bibliography 18

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 ABSTRACT
This research paper focuses on the evolution of the Hindu Code Bill in the
backdrop of The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 which was introduced
by the Chairman of our Constituent Assembly, Dr B.R Ambedkar on 11th April
1947. Human trafficking is very prevalent in a country like India. This is a
violation to the very idea of basic human rights. Human trafficking consists of all
types of traffic i.e. Child trafficking, Women trafficking, Girl child trafficking,
Labor Trafficking etc. Although, in this research paper we will be emphasizing
on the laws which were codified in the Hindu Code Bill in the form of Suppression
of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956. Not only the scenario of the
law in our country will be discussed, but also it will be compared with the laws
regarding the trafficking in too. A Supreme Court Case regarding the law will be
discussed so as to understand the implementation of the law and keep a check on
how the judiciary is following the ideology of the constitutional makers in the
following field.

One can easily observe that the Hindu Code Bill is generally linked with the
Property rights of women and the reason is that the bill mainly focuses on the
succession, inheritance and matrimonial rights of the women. Whereas, many of
us miss the point that the bill also focused on a very major and substantial point
that India is one of the leading countries in women and girl trafficking. So keeping
this in mind, the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956
was introduced. Though the Hindu Code Bill received a major backlash due to
the orthodox mentality of not only the general public but also the politicians who
failed to understand the progressive objectives of this bill.

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 INTRODUCTION
In 1941 a committee was set up under the chairmanship of Sir B. N. Rau to
enquire into problems of legal reform. This committee drafted two bills, dealing
with Hindu intestate succession and Hindu marriage. The two houses of the
central legislature then recommended that the Rau Committee be revived and
entrusted with the task of codifying the Hindu law. The committee was re-
established early in 1944. Evidence and opinions were gathered from
representative organizations and from prominent lawyers, and on the basis of this
investigation the Hindu Code Bill was drawn up. It was introduced on August 1,
1946 in the old central legislature, but not acted on. After independence it was
reintroduced by the Government in the Constituent Assembly in 1947, but
encountered unexpectedly strong opposition from conservative Hindu groups
which succeeded in preventing its passage by delaying tactics. The legislatures,
in between, passed some of the acts and laws which helped in improving the
Hindu women’s condition. For example, The Hindu Marriage Disabilities
Removal Act of 1946 and the Hindu Marriage Validating Act of 1949. The Child
Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 1949 raised the marriage age for girls from
fourteen to fifteen years. Bigamy was outlawed in the state Bombay by the
Prevention of Hindu Bigamous Marriage Act of 1946. 1

The parliamentary debates continued for more than 4 years. This was the first
longest discussion on any single Bill in the free India’s Parliament. Dr Ambedkar
tendered his resignation on 27th September, 1951 to the Prime Minister. On the
request of the Prime Minister he continued to participate in the Parliamentary
debates till 10th October, 1951. The orthodox Hindu and the President of the
Constituent Assembly Dr. Rajendra Prasad was against the Bill. Dr. Ambedkar

1
Banningan, John A. “The Hindu Code Bill.” Far Eastern Survey, vol. 21, no. 17, 1952, pp. 173–176. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/3024109. Accessed 23 Dec. 2019.
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resigned from the Nehru’s Cabinet. In 1955, the laws relating to marriage,
adoption, maintenance, divorce etc. were passed in parliament.

Some post independent legislations included in the Hindu Code Bill are:

The Hindu Marriage Act,1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954 which allowed
marriage of people from different religions faith without changing their religion
and prescribed age of marriage as 21 years for boys and 18 years for girls. The
Hindu Succession Act, 1956 which discusses the rights of widows in the property
and various progressive rights of women in the property of her husband. The
Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 which makes adoption rights
affordable for the women. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and
Girls Act, 1956 has various provisions of how illegal trafficking in women and
girls is done with the motive of putting them into prostitution and bonded labour.
This has been discussed in various parts of this research paper. The Dowry
Prohibition Act, 1961 restricts the giving and receiving of dowry in any form. The
Maternity Benefit Act 1961 is applicable to every establishment Plantation mine
or factory and Provides for payment of maternity benefit at the rate of average
daily wage for the period of women’s actual absence. The Equal Remuneration
Act, 1976 not only provides for equal wages to both the genders but also advises
and guides the government machinery on how to proceed with the law. The Child
Marriage Restraint Act has been amended in 1976 and presented with stringent
laws. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1983 was made to amend the existing
laws and make offences even more punishable which are against the women.2

C. Halli & Dr S. Mullal, Dr B.R Ambedkar and Hindu Code Bill, IJIR, http://www.onlinejournal.in/IJIRV2I3/002.pdf
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 PRESENT SCENARIO

The Trafficking of Persons

(Prevention, Protection & Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018

The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018

was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Women and Child Development,
Ms. Maneka Gandhi on July 18, 2018. The Bill provides for the prevention,
rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficked persons. For that purpose, the bill directs
the government to setup committees that will build rehabilitation centres at the
district, state and the national level. The bill classifies various purposes for which
such trafficking is being done and has defined what type of trafficking will be
dealt with what type of punishment for example: begging, inducing early sexual
maturity, bearing children or forced labour.

Looking at the key issues, we can observe that, there are already some laws which
mentions sexual exploitation and human trafficking as their issues, so this might
lead to overlapping of circumstances. This bill punishes the owner of the premise
on which he/she allows trafficking to be carried on knowingly and hence it will
be violative of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Not only this, the bill also
provides and prescribes punishment for those who distribute or publish material
which may lead to trafficking.

KEY FEATURES OF THE BILL:3

• National Anti-Trafficking Bureau:

There will be an establishment of an anti-trafficking bureau which will implement

the provision of the bill and investigate into various trafficking cases which will
be referred by one or more than one states.

3
PRS India – Bill Summary http://prsindia.org/node/636783/chapters-at-a-glance
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 • Functions of the Bureau:

Some key features of the bill include maintaining co-ordination, surveillance and
enforcement at source, transit and detention points. Not only this, but also
increasing international co-operation with authorities abroad and legal assistance.

• State Anti-Trafficking Officers:

The state will appoint a State Nodal Officer. He/she will be responsible for the
implementation taken under the bill according to the instructions of the Anti-
Trafficking Committee and providing relief and rehabilitation services. Also, the
state will appoint Anti-Trafficking officers who will help resolving such cases.

• Protection and Rehabilitation:

The state, according to this bill is responsible to setup Protection Houses or

Rehabilitation Centres. These centres are meant to take care of the victims who
have fallen prey to this predatory practise of human trafficking. This will include
providing them with food, shelter, basic amenities, counselling, mental as well as
physical as well as emotional check-ups. The centres will be setup in every district
which will help in ensuring that the problem is solved in a long-term basis. For
this whole process, a well-structured Rehabilitation Fund will be initiated by the
government.

• Penalties:

The bill, very specifically, mentions the penalties which are to be imposed on the
person who will be held responsible for either trafficking of the person or
promoting trafficking or disclosing the identity of the victim or aggravated
trafficking: which is further defined as bonded labour and begging. For example:
the punishment prescribed for aggravated trafficking will be rigorous
imprisonment up to 10 years along with a minimum fine of Rupees 1 Lakh.

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 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT, 2017

Published by the Department of State, United States of America

According to the report published by the Department of State, USA, the Indian
Government does not fully satisfy the requirements of curbing the issue of
trafficking in our country. Despite officials themselves involved in the practise of
trafficking, the government was not observed taking any action in respect of this
aspect particularly with respect to bonded and forced labour.4

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) issued the 2015 Crime in India
Report which according to the report was the most recent law enforcement data
available at that point of time. 4,203 cases of trafficking were investigated:

3,363 cases were of sex trafficking, 77 cases were of bonded labour and 763 cases
were considered under Article 370 to clearly categorize. In this, prosecutions of
2,387 traffickers were done in which 2,180 were sex traffickers, 16 were labour
traffickers, and 191 traffickers were considered to be under Article 370. In late
2016, the Supreme Court of India directed the government of India to establish
some kind of special investigative branch or body which will help curbing this
problem. For this the government sanctioned a fund of Rupees 832,000,000.
Later, the State and the local governments started to train the Anti-Human
Trafficking Units (AHTUs).

The central advisory committee to combat trafficking of women and children for
commercial sexual exploitation is the government’s lead authority on trafficking
issues; it is unknown if the committee met during the reporting period. Some state
governments had state-level action plans, taskforces, and MOUs to combat
trafficking. MWCD and Ministry of Railways increased the number of railway
stations hosting NGO staff to provide immediate support to unaccompanied

4
http://web.archive.org/web/20170628043826/https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/271339.pdf
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children, who may be missing, abandoned, or runaways and are vulnerable to
exploitation, including trafficking.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The report recommends that the government should increase the amount and the
number of prosecutions and convictions for all forms of trafficking, including
forced and bonded labour, and of officials allegedly complicit in trafficking,
respecting due process; establish and fully resource anti-human trafficking units
(AHTUs) in all districts, including by providing additional dedicated, trained staff
and by clarifying the mandate of AHTUs; develop and implement standard
operating procedures (SOPs) to harmonize victim identification and referral, and
train officials on their use.

Improve central and state government implementation of protection programs and

compensation schemes to ensure trafficking victims receive benefits, release
certificates, and compensation funds; take steps to eliminate all recruitment fees
charged to workers; promptly disburse government funding for shelters and
develop monitoring mechanisms to ensure quality of care; continue to increase
the transparency of government efforts to combat trafficking and provide
disaggregated data on efforts to criminally investigate, prosecute, and punish sex
and labour trafficking.

This is what the report of the Department of State, United States of America
published regarding the given facts and circumstances.

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Table: Victims rescued by type of purpose of trafficking5

PURPOSE 2016 (as a %)

Forced labour 10509 45.5

Prostitution 4980 21.5

Other forms of sexual exploitation 2590 11.5

Domestic servitude 412 1.8

Forced marriage 349 1.5

Petty crimes 212 0.9

Child pornography 162 0.7

Begging 71 0.3

Drug peddling 8 0

Removal of organs 2 0

Other reasons 3824 16.5

Total Persons 23117 100

Source:

Human Trafficking, Crime in India, 2016, National Crime Records Bureau.

5
Table: http://prsindia.org/billtrack/trafficking-persons-prevention-protection-and-rehabilitation-bill-2018
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 LITERATURE REVIEW

STATUS OF HINDU WOMEN - A STUDY OF LEGISLATIVE

TRENDS & JUDICIAL BEHAVIOUR
AUTHOR: MADHU SHASTRI

PUBLISHER: RAJ KUMAR PARNAMI, RBSA PUBLISHERS

To begin with reviewing of this very knowledgeable piece of non-fictional

literature by Madhu Shastri, I would like to give an overview of the complete
book. This book goes in alignment with the evolution and development of the
laws in our country regarding the Hindu Women and their rights.
In this literature review, chapter number 4 of this book, ‘Status of Hindu
Women Under the Constitutional Framework’6 has been emphasized on. As
the name suggests, the author has focused onto the constitutional aspects of
prevention of exploitation of women and protection of women’s rights. She
begins with analysing and interpreting the Article 14 of our Constitution,
which clearly states, “The state shall not deny any person equality before the
law or equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” She praises
the apex court of our country and with the help of citing some cases states that,
Supreme Court of our country has never failed to protect human rights.
Author refers to our fundamental rights especially Article 16 – providing
equality of opportunity to everyone and Article 23 – prohibiting traffic in
human beings expressing how much our ancestors were concerned about the
welfare of women and children in the forthcoming times of our Indian Society.
Looking at the number of sources and references the author has cited, it can
easily be deduced that a lot of research and determination was invested to write
this book.

6
Madhu Shastri, Status of Hindu Women – A study of legislative trends and Judicial Behaviour; Pg. 83, 1st
edition, 1990

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 Anti-Trafficking Bill 2018 Fails to Address Changing Forms of
Labour Exploitation7
Author: Nalini Nayak
Journal: Economic and Political Weekly
Year: 2018

From the very glimpse of the article, we can observe that the author is highly
disappointed in the bill which has been formulated in the name of ‘Trafficking of
Persons (Prevention, Protection & Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018’. She is highly
critical of how the Government of India has failed to look at the human trafficking
problem from the view point of a labour-oriented approach. She says that a
government which promises to bring extensive labour reforms in the country
should keep in mind that such an Anti-Trafficking Bill must be very broad and
reforming in nature. The victims of such practises should be protected by
mechanisms of law rather than just putting them into rehabilitation centres.
The author explains how the contractors make the women and girls travel across
various households and sites where they are treated under dire and sub-human
conditions. For those who move for longer periods with agents, such as those who
are placed as domestic workers, the situation is even more grave. The conditions
of such domestic workers are dire as they are forced to stay with the employer for
a period of 11 months and are permitted to go home for leave only after that,
failing which they are not given their dues.
The author clearly states that the Bonded Labour Act and the Contract Labour Act
will come into picture In conclusion, the author wants this bill to be withdrawn
and opinionated that it should be given more thought. Instead of focusing on
criminalisation, more focus should be put on working rights.

7
Nalini Nayak. “Anti-Trafficking Bill 2018 Fails to Address Changing Forms of Labour Exploitation” Economic
and Political Weekly, Vol. 53, Issue No. 29, 21 Jul, 2018
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 SUPREME COURT CASE
VISHAL JEET VS. UNION OF INDIA8

(1990) 3 SCC 318 : 1990 SCC (Cri) 482

Vishal Jeet was the advocate as well as the petitioner-in-person along with others.
Whereas, V.C. Mahajan and A.S. Nambiar along with other advocates were for
the respondents.

The petition was filed under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution for directing the
Central Bureau of Investigation to institute an enquiry against the police officials
who are responsible for the areas that are allowing some Red-Light Areas to be
functioned as well as traditions such as Devadasi and Jogin to be performed. Also,
the petition requested for the inmates of such areas who are forcefully detained to
be released and be provided with a dignified way of life and also rehabilitate the
children of those prostitutes who are found begging in the streets.

The advocate in his petition mentioned, how the teenage girls in our country are
being deceitfully sold and forcibly brought to the brothel holders where they are
brutally treated and confined in a claustrophobic room in seclusion until they
succumb to the vicious desires of the brothel holders.

The petition mentions that Article 23 in Part III of the Indian Constitution which
gives us the Right Against Exploitation and hence prohibits ‘traffic in human
beings and beggar and other forms of labour’. Keeping the law in mind, the
Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 has been enacted
under Article 35 with the motive of abolishing immoral traffic in women and girls.

The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 aims at suppressing the venomous
practise of prostitution in women and girls to rescue the victims who have been

8
Vishal Jeet v. Union of India, AIR 1990 SC 1412
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deceitfully forced into this practise. Keeping in note all the points made by the
petitioner, the court made the following judgement:

• The concerned law enforcing agencies of the State as well as the Central
Government are directed to eradicate the room for child prostitution as
quick as possible.
• Advisory committees to be setup in order to ensure that there would be
care, protections, treatment, development and rehabilitation of the young
fallen victims.
• The governments should take the responsibility of setting up rehabilitative
homes for the victims manned by well-qualified trained social workers.
• The central government and the government of the union territories should
devise a machinery of its own for ensuring the proper implementation of
the suggestions that would be made by the respective committees.
• The advisory committee can also go deep into the Devadasi and the Jogin
Tradition and give their valuable advice and suggestions as to what best the
government could do in that regard.

With this judgement, the writ petition was disposed of.

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 COMPARISON WITH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In addition to basic economic facts, India and the United States differ in their
majority religions. Christianity in the United States whereas Hinduism in India.
Finally, women in India are so undervalued, that sex-selective abortions are a
widespread problem, while in the United States, women actually outnumber men.
All of these generalized and superficial differences between the two countries
might lead one to conclude that there must be a correspondingly radical difference
in the sex trade for each country.
In the United States, they face a numerous number of problems regarding law
enforcement and arrests along with prosecution. However, the corruption
magnitude is less in the United States rather than that of India. So, the corruption
and the police complicity in sex trafficking is still the largest difference in the sex
traffic industry between the two countries.
The United States of America government developed the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 at the federal (or national) level, which is in
concert with the United Nations protocol. India recently enacted the Criminal Law
(Amendment) Act in 2013. It defines traffickers as anyone who recruits,
transports, harbours, transfers or receives a person using certain means for the
purpose of exploitation. It is also especially harsh towards traffickers who
commercialize children. Its definition is almost identical to the United Nations
Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking against persons, especially
women and children.9
Both, the USA and India use virtually identical language to the United Nations
protocol in their national anti-trafficking acts. India has yet to seriously enforce
its new legislation – even in part. This results in lack of uniformity and the
implementation of different policies and practices between states.

9
www.brownwalker.com › index.php › JTOCS › article › download › pdf_7

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 FUTURE SCOPE

We can easily observe that the bill has particularly stated each and every detail
and the standard of procedure about how the criminals would be prosecuted and
how the rehabilitation of the victims have to be done. This step was very
mandatory to be taken as the victims who fall prey to the vicious circle of
prostitution and sexual exploitation are never able to come back to normal life.
The Supreme Court Judgement in the case of Vishal Jeet vs. Union of India was
landmark in nature and it will help the authorities to come up with various
bureaucratic solutions to solve the problem of human trafficking in our country.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that the implementation of the law should be done very

effectively and efficiently. It is very ironical in itself that the police officials
themselves sometimes get away with the criminal and help them in doing such
acts. So, a check on even the police should be kept in order to eradicate this
problem. Although, this is one of the most important aspect that the bureaucrats
themselves are involved in this gruesome activity, which makes it even more
difficult to curb this issue. So, this is highly recommended that more stringent
laws are formulated and brought in the system.

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 CONCLUSION

With this, I would like to conclude my project work which helped me understand
about how the Hindu Code Bill evolved and helped me observe how progressive
the understanding of the Constituent Makers was. The project emphasised on the
specific part of the code bill i.e. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women
and Girls Act, 1956. We can easily observe how far-sighted Dr Ambedkar was in
imbibing the grave aspect of Human Trafficking into the bill. The project focuses
on the present scenario of how the government is constantly passing bills and
amendments to various laws which are meant for the eradication of human
trafficking in our country. We can see that the Indian Government has recently in
the year 2018 passed the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act which provided,
prescribed and described different kinds of punishments for those who forcibly,
deceitfully and maliciously pushed girls and women to this vicious cycle of
trafficking.

The reader can view how the laws are being implemented in the country with the
help of the data which has been provided above not only of the National Crime
Record Bureau, but also a report which has been published by the Department of
States, United States of America i.e. Trafficking Report, 2017. So we can see a
great contrast about how the world is looking at the condition of our nation and
how we are constantly trying to finish off this practise. The landmark case of
Vishal Jeet vs. Union of India displayed the crucial role of Judiciary into this
matter. This case mainly revolved around the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in
Women and Girls Act, 1956.

With this the student would like to submit the analysis, summary and critical
observations about the present scenario of Human Trafficking in India.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Book: Status of Hindu Women (A study of legislative trends and Judicial

Behaviour) by Madhu Shastri.

2. Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Hindu Code Bill, Women Measure Legislation –

IJIR: http://www.onlinejournal.in/IJIRV2I3/002.pdf

3. Article on JSTOR: “The Hindu Code Bill” by John A. Banningan

4. Article in Economic and Political Weekly: “Anti-Trafficking Bill 2018

Fails to Address Changing Forms of Labour Exploitation” by Nalini Nayak

5. Vishal Jeet Vs. Union of India [AIR 1990 SC 1412]

6. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956

7. World Trafficking Report, 2017 by the Department of State, USA:

http://web.archive.org/web/20170628043826/https://www.state.gov/docu
ments/organization/271339.pdf

8. The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection & Rehabilitation) Bill,

2018 – Summary: http://prsindia.org/node/636783/chapters-at-a-glance

9. Human Trafficking, Crime in India, 2016, National Crime Records Bureau:

http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2016/pdfs/NEWPDFs/Crime%
20in%20India%20-%202016%20Complete%20PDF%20291117.pdf

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