The California Assembly’s Appropriations Committee has passed a bill seeking to ban caste discrimination.
SB 403, authored by Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab would add caste to the list of classes protected by state laws, Cal Matters reports. Currently race, gender and sexual orientation are considered protected classes. Caste is a social hierarchy system where individuals are born into a “caste” that
Ashley Zavala, a California Capitol Correspondent for KCRA News, tweeted that the appropriations committee had passed the bill on the morning of August 16. Sen. Wahab told Zavala it was “the fastest for that bill.”
Proponents of the bill, like an organization called Equality Labs, have been raising awareness about the impacts of caste discrimination in California. In a video post on Twitter, they shared the story of Shahira, a Punjabi Dalit woman. Dalit people were previously referred to as “untouchables.”
In the video, Shaira describes being bullied at school because of her caste. She also mentions a supervisor who harrassed and intimidated her at work because of her caste.
Opponents of the bill, like the Hindu American foundation, claim it will lead to unfair discrimination of South Asian Americans, specifically Hindus. They wanted any mention of caste removed from SB 403, Cal Matters reports.
The bill was amended to categorize caste as a subset of ancestry; however, the word was not completely removed.
If SB 403 passes, it would be the first law of its kind in the United States to ban caste discrimination. Now that it has passed the appropriations committee, it will be read for the second time on the Assembly floor.
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