Metropolis councillor says proposed invoice would assist finish ‘invisible and unaddressed’ drawback affecting South-Asian People.
A councillor in Seattle has taken a historic step within the struggle towards caste-based discrimination by proposing the first-ever laws in america to straight outlaw the follow.
Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s solely Indian-American metropolis councillor, mentioned in proposing the laws final month that South Asian People face caste discrimination in employment, training and housing. She needs to increase town’s present anti-discrimination coverage to guard these focused due to their caste.
The 2-millennium-old caste system is practised in nations akin to India, the place Dalits, previously referred to as “untouchables”, lie on the backside of the hierarchy.
Sawant says the proposed laws, which fits to a vote on February 21, would assist put an finish to an “invisible and unaddressed” type of discrimination in Seattle, dwelling to an estimated 75,000 Indian People.
“Caste discrimination is a really severe subject in america,” Sawant advised Al Jazeera. “Decrease-caste group members from South Asian and different immigrant backgrounds usually face discrimination, particularly within the office.”
The caste system was formally banned in India in 1950 but it surely continues to permeate many points of each day life and has unfold to diaspora communities within the West. Beneath this technique, caste is imposed at start and lower-caste members are assigned menial work thought-about unfit for the higher castes.
‘Legal guidelines wanted’
In line with the first-ever survey on caste discrimination within the US, performed in 2016 by Equality Labs, at the very least 25 % of Dalits within the nation mentioned that they had confronted verbal or bodily assault, whereas two out of three reported being handled unfairly within the office.
Many have referred to as for stronger authorized protections towards caste discrimination.
Samir, who spoke to Al Jazeera on the situation his final identify be withheld, mentioned he had stored his caste a secret from his colleagues in Seattle’s tech business for almost a decade for worry of discrimination. However in 2020, he determined to handle the difficulty publicly in an internet publish.
He believes the US should evolve to account for the biases imported by some immigrants.
“It might be naive to imagine that as quickly as an individual takes a flight to the US, their biases are magically gone,” he mentioned. “Whereas training and public consciousness are our weapons in our struggle for equality, sadly, it's not sufficient. Legal guidelines and laws are additionally wanted … [to] assist be certain that social change is sustainable.”
The problem of caste discrimination within the US has repeatedly made headlines, together with in 2020, when California regulators sued Cisco Methods Inc for allegedly discriminating towards a Dalit worker. Cisco has mentioned it acted in compliance with all legal guidelines and inner insurance policies and promised a “vigorous” defence.
The case, which remains to be pending, prompted Apple to replace its insurance policies to explicitly prohibit caste discrimination, making it the primary tech big to take action.
And in 2021, a federal lawsuit spanning 5 US states accused a distinguished Hindu organisation, BAPS, of trafficking Dalit employees from India and forcing them to work at wages as little as $1.20 an hour to construct temples below harsh circumstances. BAPS has denied the allegations.
The renewed dialog about caste has additionally prompted some US schools and universities to step up protections for Dalit college students, akin to by including caste to inner anti-discrimination insurance policies.
Help for victims
Anil Wagde, an activist with the Ambedkar Worldwide Heart (AIC), a Maryland-based Dali-rights group concerned in serving to to draft the Seattle laws, mentioned its passage may educate public establishments, companies and civil society on how caste bias operates.
“It would additionally present much-needed safety and assist for victims of caste discrimination and violence to confront their perpetrators,” Wagde advised Al Jazeera.
Prashant Nema, an activist with the Silicon Valley-based Ambedkar King Examine Circle – a gaggle that goals to problem caste, race, gender and different types of oppression in politics and society and that additionally contributed to the proposed laws – agreed: “There are lots of methods the caste-oppressed can get discriminated towards, excluded and even harassed in America, on account of an absence of authorized methods to deal with these conditions,” she advised Al Jazeera. “[The bill’s] passage will create a rule of legislation.”
However some teams have raised objections, together with the Coalition of Hindus of North America, urging Seattle’s metropolis council to reject the laws.
“This unique deal with one group is discriminatory in itself and this must be opposed by truthful minded individuals who worth equal therapy,” a coalition spokesperson advised Al Jazeera in an emailed assertion. “Present legal guidelines round ancestry and nationwide origin can be utilized to prosecute authentic instances of caste discrimination.”
Sawant mentioned it is a typical right-wing speaking level and an try and stifle the rights of oppressed-caste members within the US: “To say that defending lower-caste Indian People towards discrimination would goal Indian People from different castes is like saying addressing racism towards Black and brown folks would negatively have an effect on white folks.”
In the meantime, for Dalits in different US cities, the introduction of anti-caste laws in Seattle has raised hopes for nationwide motion.
The proposed state laws “is small, however a landmark second for us”, Dolly Arjun, a Dalit-American activist from Boston, advised Al Jazeera. “But it surely’s just the start. We purpose to have a nationwide ban towards this despicable and inhumane follow of the caste system.”
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