Examine the administrative and federal challenges in implementing a uniform, nationwide victim protection protocol for trafficking survivors across Indian states.

In Prajwala v. Union of India (2026 INSC 609), the Supreme Court framed a six-stage nationwide Victim Protection Plan — pre-rescue to prosecution — anchored in Articles 21 and 23 [1]. Its promise of uniformity, however, collides with the reality that trafficking response is delivered by states through varied police and welfare machinery.

Federal challenges

• Police and public order are State subjects (Seventh Schedule, List II); the Centre only advises and funds, so a uniform protocol depends on 28 states and 8 UTs voluntarily converging [2].
• Uneven institutional capacity: AHTUs exist across districts but differ widely in staffing, training and functioning; the Court's mandate of a DSP-rank head and at least two women officers per AHTU strains thinly-staffed state cadres [1][2].
• Inter-state trafficking routes demand source–transit–destination coordination for repatriation and reintegration, yet jurisdictional handovers between state police forces remain slow [2].
• Fiscal dependence: central assistance for AHTUs and the Ujjawala shelter-and-rehabilitation scheme is centrally designed but state-implemented, producing patchy coverage of protective homes [3].

Administrative challenges

• Multi-department convergence: AHTUs must integrate police with Women & Child Development, Health, Labour and Prosecution — a classic coordination bottleneck where accountability diffuses [1][2].
• Attitudinal and legal contradiction: the ruling bars detaining rescued persons in police stations and treats them as victims, but ITPA Sections 7, 8 and 20 still enable their penalisation, so front-line officers face conflicting mandates until Parliament amends the Act [4].
• Rights-based delivery: informed consent, privacy and non-stigmatisation require trained counsellors, legal aid and long-term reintegration support that most district administrations currently lack [1].

Uniformity of standards need not mean uniformity of machinery. A cooperative-federal route — model state SOPs, capacity-building grants, an inter-state AHTU coordination platform, and legislative cure of the ITPA's victim-criminalising provisions — can convert judicial direction into administrative practice, realising the constitutional promise of dignity under Articles 21 and 23.