Examine how India's maritime legal framework has evolved to address seafarer abandonment and recruitment malpractices.

India supplies a large share of the global seafaring workforce, yet its governing law until recently was the colonial-era Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 — in force from 15 March 2026 — marks a decisive shift from discretionary welfare to statutory, rights-based protection for seafarers [1].

The pre-2025 gap

• The 1958 Act, with 561 sections, predated the ILO's Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, leaving abandonment unaddressed as a distinct statutory wrong [2].
• Recruitment abuses were governed largely through subordinate rules and DGS circulars, giving weak deterrence against unlicensed manning agents.

Statutory response to abandonment

• The 2025 Act creates express legal protection for abandoned seafarers, converting a welfare concern into an enforceable entitlement [1].
• It mandates time-bound reporting of abandonment by recruitment and placement services to the shipping authorities, enabling rapid repatriation [1].

Curbing recruitment malpractices

• Tighter licensing and oversight of Recruitment and Placement Services (RPS), with penal consequences for operating unlicensed agencies [1].
• Draft Merchant Shipping (Recruitment and Placement of Seafarers) Rules, 2026 are being framed to operationalise these safeguards [1].

Institutional and structural reform

• A streamlined framework of 16 Parts and 325 clauses replaces the 1958 statute, aligning domestic law with IMO and ILO standards [2].
• The regulator, renamed the Directorate General of Maritime Administration under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, has issued advisories restricting deployment of Indian seafarers to conflict-affected zones such as the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden [1].
• Rule-making proceeds through 14 Technical Committees involving seafarers' associations, training bodies and shipowners [2].

The evolution is thus from a fragmented, circular-driven regime to a consolidated statutory architecture matching global labour benchmarks. Its promise now depends on prompt notification of rules, adequately staffed port-level inspection, and a functioning financial-security mechanism for stranded crews. Read with the companion Coastal Shipping Act, 2025, the reform advances both India's maritime ambitions and the dignity-of-labour vision underlying Article 21 [3].