IPC 364 & 370 vs BNS 141 & 143: Kidnapping to Murder & Human Trafficking (2024)

IPC 370 was inserted in 2013 as India's comprehensive human trafficking provision, replacing a patchwork of kidnapping and immoral traffic provisions. It covers the full trafficking chain — recruitment, transport, transfer, harbour, and receipt — for any form of exploitation including sexual exploitation, forced labour, organ harvesting, and domestic servitude. BNS 143 preserves this framework but adds critical enhanced minimums that respond to India's position as a major source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. The new 10-year minimum for child trafficking directly addresses the vulnerability of minors who constitute a disproportionate share of trafficking victims. BNS 144 (exploitation of a trafficked person) is an entirely new provision that criminalises the demand side of trafficking — those who knowingly use trafficked persons' services.