Leaders in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are proposing the death penalty for those who allegedly force people into religious conversion — a change that could harm the state’s Christians, who already are persecuted under the law through false accusations.

Mohan Yadav, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said March 8 that he plans to amend the state’s anti-conversion law to capitally punish those found to be fraudulently forcing people to convert, adding that “religious conversion will not be tolerated”. Christians make up just 0.27% of the 72 million population of Madhya Pradesh,

Since 2021, the state’s anti-conversion law has already resulted in sentences of 10 years in jail for violators.

Though religious freedom is provided for in the Indian Constitution, anti-conversion laws have been an increasing problem for adherents of minority faiths. In recent years, at least a dozen of India’s 28 states passed laws to criminalize “forced” conversions, most of them in Hindu nationalist party-ruled states from the early 2000s onward.