The transfer sparked a debate inside the South Asian diaspora, with Dalit teams and progressive outfits hailing the choice however some organisations alleging that the availability will goal different Hindu-People.

On Tuesday, the Seattle Metropolis Council handed an modification, with six members in favour and one in opposition to, titled “Caste as a Protected Class” that banned discrimination in employment, housing, public transport and retail institutions, amongst others. Sponsored by council members Kshama Sawant and Lisa Herbold, the modification stated that caste discrimination affected greater than 250 million individuals internationally.

“Though caste is usually related to Hinduism and India, it transcends non secular and geographic boundaries, with caste-based discrimination displaying up in Christian, Muslim, Sikh, and different non secular communities, throughout South Asia, and in Southeast Asian and African communities, together with Japan, the Center East, Nigeria, Somalia, and Senegal,” the modification learn.

The modification added that caste and related discrimination travelled with the diaspora, together with within the US, and Washington State and Seattle have been house to such communities. “The town of Seattle is dedicated to recognising the dignity of all its residents, together with the precise of all Seattle residents to dwell in a metropolis that doesn’t topic them to prejudicial therapy or discrimination,” the assertion added.

It additionally acknowledged that current anti-discrimination provisions didn’t embody caste discrimination.

“It’s official: our motion has gained a historic, first-in-the-nation ban on caste discrimination in Seattle! Now we have to construct a motion to unfold this victory across the nation,” tweeted Sawant.

“Love has gained over hate …this was a win led by Dalit girls and its basis was set by Dalit feminism,” stated Thenmozhi Soundararajan, director of the Dalit rights advocacy group Equality Labs.

The event is the most recent in a collection of occasions which have spotlighted the presence of caste among the many South Asian inhabitants within the US with a big group of activists saying that birth-based biases have adopted the diaspora. This has included a landmark case filed by a former worker of tech big Cisco alleging bias and discrimination as a consequence of his caste standing final yr, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raiding an under-construction temple complicated in New Jersey following allegations that Dalit employees have been exploited and even tortured.

Hours forward of the vote, Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal backed the transfer. “Caste discrimination has no place in society anyplace on this planet, together with right here in America,” she tweeted.

In a separate abstract be aware, town council outlined caste as a “a system of inflexible social stratification characterised by hereditary standing, endogamy, and social limitations sanctioned by customized, legislation, or faith.” The laws, it claimed, will permit these topic to discrimination on the idea of caste a authorized avenue to pursue a treatment in opposition to alleged discrimination. Seattle, a expertise and enterprise hub, is house to roughly 167,000 individuals of South Asian origin.

The transfer sparked opposition from some teams. In an announcement, Suhag Shukla, the manager director of the Hindu American Basis (HAF), stated that whereas HAF maintained that caste discrimination was flawed, the “singling out of the South Asians and addition of ‘caste’ to non-discrimination” violated the very insurance policies it sought to amend.

“The town of Seattle has voted to deal with South Asians in a fashion than no different ethnic or racial group is handled beneath the guise of non-discrimination. It has voted sure to discriminating in opposition to ethnic minority, repeating the ugliness of nativists within the state practically a century in the past,” she added.

The event is emblematic of rising caste consciousness within the US – particularly amongst progressive teams and universities. In December 2019, Brandeis College grew to become the primary US establishment to incorporate caste in its non-discrimination coverage, and was adopted by the California State College System, Brown College and the College of California, Davis.