The California State Assembly has passed a bill to make caste discrimination illegal. It was passed by the state Senate in May this year, The News Minute reports. The law would add caste as a protected category under “ancestry” in the California Civil Rights Act, education and housing codes. The signature of the state governor remains.
The bill is important for tech companies with many people of Indian and Southeast Asian descent. Including among the executive staff: Sundar Pichai runs Google, Satya Nadella runs Microsoft, and so on. However, the nuance is that they belong to the highest Indian castes, such as Brahmans and Kshatriyas. The catalyst for the passage of the law was the scandal at Cisco in April this year. Two executives of the company, Sundar Iyer and Raman Kompell, were accused of discriminating and harassing an employee based on caste, a division of people based on their background. The employee belonged to the Dalit community, a group that is at the bottom of the caste system in India. He was followed by California State Senator Aisha Wahab and filed the bill that passed.
The South Asian community is divided on the issue. Some groups, such as Hindus for Human Rights and Hindus for Caste Equity, backed by Equality Labs, argue that it is necessary to protect vulnerable members of the community from caste-based discrimination in education and the technology sector, where many hold key roles. Human rights activists and other groups argue that caste discrimination is prevalent in several South Asian communities and diasporas on the basis of religion.
But other organizations such as the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America oppose the policy, arguing that it would specifically target Hindus and Indian-Americans, who are commonly associated with the caste system. They report that there is no clear data to prove such discrimination exists and that caste falls under “national origin,” making a separate protected category unnecessary.