CNN —
Seattle is explicitly banning discrimination on the basis of caste, making it the first city in the US to take such a step.
The Seattle City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday that amends the city’s municipal code to include caste as a protected class, alongside categories such as race, religion and gender identity. The law prohibits caste discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and other arenas, and allows caste-oppressed people in the city to lodge complaints of discrimination.
“It is a very simple question: Should discrimination based on caste be allowed to continue in Seattle?” Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who sponsored the ordinance, said during Tuesday’s city council meeting. “But while simple, it is also profound and historic.”
Casteism is an insidious form of discrimination that typically operates within South Asian communities. The caste system is a social hierarchy that divides people into rigid categories at birth, with those on the lowest rungs of the ladder – many of whom self-identify as Dalits – on the receiving end of slurs, discrimination and even violence because of their caste identities. Though the caste system originated in ancient India and is rooted in Hinduism, its contemporary form developed under centuries of Muslim and British rule, and it can now be found in virtually all South Asian countries and religious communities. After India attained independence, the country’s new constitution, authored by a Dalit legal...
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