Re-Evaluating The Trafficking Lens: A Critique Of The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) And Its Implications For The Bedia Community
- IJLLR Journal
- Jan 16
- 1 min read
Ms. Priyamvada Bhargava, Research Scholar – JLU School of Law, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal
Dr. Sachin Rastogi, Dean & Professor – JLU School of Law, Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal
ABSTRACT
The introduction of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) represents a significant departure from colonial penal legislation. However, this essay contends that its handling of sexual exploitation and trafficking reveals a continuance of carceral logic, especially in its effects on historically oppressed and de-notified groups like the Bedia. The BNS runs the risk of confusing sex work, poverty, and community customs with criminal activity by using a broad trafficking lens, which would allow for new kinds of surveillance and discretionary policing.
The study will shed light on how the new penal framework perpetuates the structural vulnerabilities of the Bedia community despite their formal de- notification in 1952 through a doctrinal analysis of trafficking-related provisions under the BNS, read alongside constitutional guarantees of equality, dignity, and livelihood. The paper will also highlight the enduring colonial presumptions under modern legislative reform by placing these provisions within the larger jurisprudence on individual liberty and state power.
The study will argue that the BNS compromises constitutional guarantees and runs the risk of maintaining historical stigma through contemporary statutory wording in the absence of a clear distinction between forceful exploitation and consenting adult behaviour. The necessity of a rights-based interpretive approach that balances trafficking law with constitutional morality and the daily realities of de-notified tribes is emphasized in the conclusion.
Keywords: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Trafficking Law; De-Notified Tribes (DNTs); Bedia Community; Criminalization; Constitutional Morality; Police Discretion; Sex Work; Historical Stigma; Penal Reform.
