Invoice banning caste discrimination in California clears first main hurdle

A invoice that might outlaw caste discrimination within the US state of California has cleared its first massive legislative hurdle.

On Tuesday, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favour of the laws, sending it to the subsequent committee for consideration.

If handed, the invoice might make California the primary state within the nation to make caste bias unlawful by including it as a protected class within the state’s anti-discrimination legal guidelines.

State Senator Aisha Wahab, the primary Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state legislature, launched the invoice final month. 

“We have hit a nerve and uncovered a type of discrimination many by no means even knew existed,” mentioned Wahab, D-Hayward, who advised committee members that she has acquired loss of life threats after proposing this laws.

“Caste is an invisible shackle positioned on folks at delivery. These of us not raised in that system cannot presumably perceive what it does to 1’s psyche, the inter-generational trauma it causes.”

India’s Hindu caste system, which dates again 1000’s of years, divides society right into a inflexible hereditary hierarchy primarily based on a perception in so-called upper-caste purity, with Dalits on the bottom rung going through discrimination and even violence.

Activists say caste-based discrimination has adopted the South Asian diaspora to the USA.

Caste is a division of individuals associated to delivery or descent and people on the lowest strata of the caste system, referred to as Dalits, have been pushing for authorized protections in California and past.

References to a societal hierarchy could be discovered within the millennia-old Hindu textual content Rig Veda the place a hymn describes the origin of all life from the Purusha or “supreme being.” 

A verse states that the 4 classes [varnas] of Hindu society got here from this infinite being. The Brahmins [priest class] appeared from the being’s head, the Kshatriyas [warriors] from his arms, the Vaishyas [business class] from his thighs and the Shudras [labourers] from his toes. 

Those that had been exterior the system turned referred to as the outcasts or untouchables, and later because the Dalits.

The varna system initially served to categorise people on the idea of their attributes and aptitude. Nonetheless, with time, it advanced into the caste system the place an individual’s occupation and standing in society turned decided by delivery.

READ MORE: California might turn out to be first US state to outlaw caste discrimination

Caste discrimination in US corporations

Supporters of the invoice say it’s obligatory to guard Dalits from bias in housing, schooling and within the tech sector — the place they maintain key roles.

Opponents referred to as the proposed laws “unconstitutional” and mentioned it will unfairly goal Hindus and other people of Indian descent. 

Wahab asserted on Tuesday that the invoice “doesn’t goal any particular neighborhood or faith.”

A United Nations report in 2016 mentioned at the least 250 million folks worldwide nonetheless face caste discrimination in Asia, Africa, the Center East and Pacific areas, in addition to in varied diaspora communities.

In line with a 2021 report by the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Research, Asians, together with South Asians, maintain 37.8 % of technical roles and 25.3 % of management roles at Silicon Valley’s largest tech corporations.

In 2020, California regulators sued Cisco Methods saying a Dalit Indian engineer confronted caste discrimination on the firm’s Silicon Valley headquarters. 

In one other case, Tanuja Gupta, give up her senior supervisor job at Google Information final yr after blowback over inviting Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and government director of Oakland, California-based Equality Labs, a Dalit advocacy group, to talk to staff throughout April, which is Dalit Historical past Month. 

The speak was canceled and Gupta accused her former employer of retaliation, which Google has denied.

Dalits being handled ‘unfairly’

Rakhi Israni, an legal professional and California resident, who testified earlier than the committee mentioned the laws is an “unconstitutional denial of my neighborhood’s rights to equity and equal safety beneath the regulation.”

“If this invoice is adopted, caste would be the solely discrimination regulation class that’s not facially impartial,” she mentioned. 

Ann Ravel, who served on the Federal Election Fee beneath president Barack Obama, testified that she views this invoice and the motion to finish caste discrimination “as an necessary civil rights concern.”

“Until caste is explicitly added [as a protected category], it is going to be very troublesome for individuals who have been discriminated towards to hunt authorized treatment,” she mentioned.

A 2020 survey of Indian Individuals by the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace discovered caste discrimination was reported by 5 % of survey respondents.

Whereas 53 % of foreign-born Hindu Indian Individuals mentioned they affiliate with a caste group, solely 34 % of US-born Hindu Indian Individuals mentioned they do the identical.

Nonetheless, a 2016 Equality Labs survey of 1,500 South Asians within the US confirmed 67 % of Dalits who responded reported being handled unfairly due to their caste.

Committee members mentioned they understood opponents’ considerations, however are inclined to maneuver the laws alongside as a result of they imagine it should assist stop such discrimination.

The invoice acquired bipartisan help on the committee.

Subsequent, the laws will transfer to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.

In February, Seattle turned the primary US metropolis and jurisdiction exterior South Asia so as to add caste to its anti-discrimination legal guidelines.

READ MORE: Seattle turns into first US metropolis to ban caste discrimination

Supply: AP