Forced labour continues to persist in India, deeply entrenched across a range of industries despite a raft of state responses, business initiatives, and social audits. A recent white paper critically examines whether government and corporate efforts are actually dismantling exploitative systems or simply managing their symptoms. The report notes that while anti-trafficking laws and policy frameworks exist, their implementation is weak and often fails to address root causes. Social audits and voluntary certifications, especially in sectors like apparel and food processing, are found to be largely ineffective at uncovering hidden abuses. Workers remain vulnerable to debt bondage, wage theft, and hazardous conditions, with little access to justice or meaningful remedy. These systemic challenges are clearly visible in Maharashtra’s sugarcane sector. Here, thousands of migrant workers—including women and children—are recruited each season, often through labour contractors who keep them in debt bondage. Workers face long hours, withheld wages, poor living conditions, health hazards, and lack of access to basic services like safe housing and healthcare. Efforts by buyers and industry to address these issues have largely failed to deliver results on the ground. Both reports highlight the urgent need for worker-led, rights-based approaches, improved government oversight, and stronger legal enforcement to break the cycle of forced labour. Without meaningful reforms, India’s most vulnerable workers will continue to face exploitation and neglect across supply chains.