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U.S. discrimination laws ban ancestry discrimination but do not
explicitly ban casteism. California's legislation targets the
caste system in South Asian immigrant communities by adding
caste to the list of categories protected under the state's
anti-discrimination laws.
The bill was introduced and authored by state Senator Aisha
Wahab, an Afghan American Democrat, in March. An earlier version
of it passed the state Senate before undergoing revisions.
The bill was passed on Monday by the state Assembly with a near
unanimous vote. The revised version will now move back for a
vote to the state Senate, where it is expected to pass, before
heading to the desk of California Governor Gavin Newsom to be
signed into law.
Activists opposing caste discrimination say it is no different
from other forms of discrimination like racism and hence should
be outlawed.
The movement to fight the caste system in North America has
picked up energy in recent months.
Earlier this year, Seattle became the first U.S. city to outlaw
caste discrimination after a city council vote and Toronto's
school board became the first in Canada to recognize that caste
discrimination existed in the city's schools.
The issue is particularly important to Americans of Indian
descent and Hindus.
The caste system is among the world's oldest forms of rigid
social stratification. It dates back thousands of years and
allows many privileges to upper castes but represses lower
castes. The Dalit community is on the lowest rung of the Hindu
caste system; members have been treated as "untouchables."
India outlawed caste discrimination over 70 years ago, yet
several studies in recent years show that bias persists. One
study found people from lower castes were underrepresented in
higher-paying jobs.
Dalits still face widespread abuse across India, where their
attempts at upward social mobility have at times been violently
put down.
Debate over the caste system in India and abroad is contentious
and intertwined with religion. Some people say discrimination is
now rare, especially outside India. Indian government policies
reserving seats for lower-caste students at top Indian
universities have helped many land tech jobs in the West in
recent years.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)
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