• Seattle has become the first US city to outlaw caste discrimination after its local council passed a resolution, moved by an Indian-American politician and economist, to add caste to its non-discrimination policy.

• The resolution moved by Kshama Sawant, was approved by the Seattle City Council by six to one vote. The results of the vote could have far-reaching implications on the issue of caste discrimination in the US.

• Equality Labs is the brain behind the anti-caste discrimination resolution in Seattle and it has been spearheading a nationwide campaign. It has created a coalition of some 200 organisations in support of its efforts over the issue.

• Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. 

• The origins of the caste system in India can be traced back 3,000 years as a social hierarchy based on one’s occupation and birth. It is a system that has evolved over the centuries. 

• Caste discrimination has been prohibited in India since 1948, a year after the nation’s Independence from British rule.

• The US is the second most popular destination for Indians living abroad, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the US diaspora grew from about 206,000 in 1980 to about 2.7 million in 2021. 

• The group South Asian Americans Leading Together reports that nearly 5.4 million South Asians live in the US up from the 3.5 million counted in the 2010 census. Most trace their roots to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

• Over the past three years, several colleges and university systems have moved to prohibit caste discrimination. 

• In December 2019, Brandeis University near Boston became the first US college to include caste in its non-discrimination policy. The California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all adopted similar measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers in 2021 as part of its contract with its graduate student union.

Article 15 of Indian Constitution 

It deals with Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them

2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to—

a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or

b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public

This right is available to Indian citizens only. Hence foreign nationals can be discriminated against vis-à-vis Indian citizens by the Indian state. Similarly, legal entities can also be discriminated against. Further while Art. 15(1) is a direction only to the State, Art. 15(2) is available against private individuals as well.

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