India

India's primary statute is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA). Section 3 criminalises keeping or managing a brothel (1–3 years rigorous imprisonment); s.4 punishes anyone living wholly or partly on a sex worker's earnings (up to 2 years); s.5 criminalises procurement, inducement or taking persons for prostitution; s.7 bans sex work in or near public places (within 200 metres of temples, hospitals, schools); s.8 prohibits soliciting "by words, gestures, wilful exposure" in or visible from public places. Selling sex between consenting adults in private is not itself a crime. On 19 May 2022, a three-judge Supreme Court bench (Justices Rao, Gavai, Bopanna) issued landmark interim directions under Article 142 in Budhadev Karmaskar v State of West Bengal, recognising sex work as a profession protected under Article 21 and directing police of all states not to arrest, penalise, harass or victimise voluntary adult sex workers during brothel raids. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (in force 1 July 2024) replaced the IPC but did not change ITPA — BNS sections 143–144 cover trafficking and sexual exploitation; ITPA itself remains the operative sex-work statute.

Sonagachi (North Kolkata) is the largest red-light district in Asia, with roughly 11,000–16,000 sex workers across multi-storey brothels; it is also home to the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), which marked its 30th anniversary on 15 July 2024 and represents about 60,000 members across West Bengal. Kamathipura (Mumbai) has shrunk dramatically — from 45,000 sex workers in 1992 to roughly 500 by 2018 — and on 20 June 2025 Mumbai Police "rescued" 44 women in a major crackdown; activists at Asha Darpan and Astha Parivar accuse authorities of clearing the area for a state-announced redevelopment. GB Road (Delhi) and Budhwar Peth (Pune) remain operative. NNSW reports ~150,000 members across 8 NGOs and 12 CBOs in 7 states.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDPA) was formally activated by the DPDP Rules 2025, notified on 13 November 2025, with a hard compliance deadline of 13 May 2027 — the Data Protection Board is operational and penalties can reach ₹250 crore per breach. The IT Rules 2021 already require intermediaries to remove content quickly on government order. The 2022 CERT-In directive requires VPN providers to log user data, pushing privacy-focused operators (NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN) to remove Indian servers. Telegram remains widely used despite intermittent crackdowns.

Indian tourist visas and the e-Visa permit only recreation, sightseeing, short visits, business and short conferences — sex work is explicitly outside scope. Foreign nationals caught working under ITPA face arrest, prosecution under the Foreigners Act 1946, fines, imprisonment and multi-year or indefinite re-entry bans. The 2024 TIP Report notes that authorities have repeatedly charged trafficked foreign women with commercial sex offences rather than treating them as victims. Bangladeshi and Nepali nationals face disproportionate scrutiny during raids.

No openly compliant domestic adult-services classifieds — sex-work advertising on Indian platforms is routinely taken down under IT Rules 2021. Telegram channels and private groups (informal, variable enforcement) dominate; international escort directories blocked or partially blocked at ISP level, VPN typically required.

• NNSW — National Network of Sex Workers India
• DMSC — Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (Sonagachi)
• AINSW — All India Network of Sex Workers (legal vehicle for NNSW)
• VAMP / SANGRAM (Sangli, Maharashtra)