California may become the first state in the United States of America to legally ban caste discrimination. Senator Aisha Wahab introduced a bill on Wednesday, March 22, to include caste as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws. If passed by the Governor of California, the move may benefit a large South Asian population that lives in the state which is home to some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
Speaking about the bill, Senator Wahab said, “This historic legislation is about workers’ rights, women’s rights, queer rights, and civil rights. We want to ensure organisations and companies do not entrench caste discrimination in their practices or policies, and in order to do that we need to make it plainly clear that discrimination based on caste is against the law.”
California has seen a spate of cases pertaining to caste discrimination over the years. In 2001, an ‘upper’-caste man named Lakireddy Bali Reddy was charged by federal officials for trafficking Dalit girls from India and subjecting them to sexual servitude and labour exploitation. More recently, in Senator Wahab’s constituency, a senior executive at Google resigned when the company cancelled a talk to be given by Dalit activist and Equality Labs founder Thenmozhi Soundararajan. The action came after a Washington Post expose on employees sending out mass emails internally, calling Thenmozhi “Hindu phobic” and “anti-Hindu”. Tanuja wrote in her resignation letter that Google “willfully ignored caste discrimination.”
In a statement following Senator Wahab’s bill, Dalit Civil Rights organisation Equality Labs said that in the US, its data found one in four caste-oppressed people have faced physical and verbal violence, one in three education discrimination, and two out of three workplace discrimination.
“In California, caste discrimination occurs across industries, including technology, education, construction, restaurants, domestic work, and medicine. Caste discrimination against Dalits - people formerly called "untouchables" by dominant castes - has included bullying, harassment, bias, wage theft, sexual harassment, and even trafficking. Caste-oppressed people also experience housing discrimination when their caste identity is discovered,” Equality Labs said.
Alphabet Workers’ Union also hailed the bill, saying, “As California considers this historic step to address this civil rights issue and address the discrimination that caste-oppressed citizens and workers face in the state, we urge our elected officials to weigh in on the side of human, civil, gender and worker rights and vote yes on SB 403 to ensure California is safe and welcoming for all.
The bill in California comes almost a month after the city of Seattle created history, becoming the first US city to ban caste discrimination. The City Council added caste to its anti-discrimination laws in a major move that will prohibit businesses in Seattle from discriminating based on caste with respect to hiring, tenure, promotion, workplace conditions, or wages. The ordinance was approved by 6-1 vote and reflects the growing demands of anti-caste groups in the US who have been fighting against caste oppression. However, the move did not sit well with pro-Hindu groups. An opinion piece written by the editor of Panchajanya, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated magazine, called it a result of “Hinduphobia”. “By passing an ‘anti-caste’ resolution, the Seattle City Council has proved that Hinduphobia is being promoted in the US at institutional level,” the editorial said.
Meanwhile, Harvard University has added caste to its anti-discrimination policy. On March 22, Harvard Provost Alan Garber released a revised set of non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies, under which caste is a protected category. The revised policy will be in place from September 2023.
Another milestone achieved.@Harvard University has added #caste to its non-discrimination policy.
— Ambedkar International Center (AIC) (@ambedkar_center) March 23, 2023
Our congratulations and sincere thanks to the students and faculty, whose dedicated efforts led to this great accomplishment.
The Domino Effect is in play.#BanCasteInUSA pic.twitter.com/TtHPDb4aFi