Los Angeles, California – The California state legislature has become the first in the United States to pass a bill banning discrimination based on caste, a centuries-old system of social stratification with roots in South Asia.
On Tuesday, the State Senate passed SB 403 by a margin of 31-5, adding caste as a form of ancestry protected under state civil rights law, as well as education and housing codes.
The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom, with activists calling on the Democrat to sign it into law.
“I’m proud to stand in solidarity with every person who said they, as a Californian, experienced caste discrimination, and others who say they want it to stop,” Democratic State Senator Aisha Wahab, the bill’s author, said in a news conference on Wednesday.
“We shined a light on a long-hidden form of discrimination thousands of years old, invisible shackles on the wrist of millions of people.”
The passage of the bill, supported by a wide array of civil rights and social justice organisations, has been hailed as the most significant victory yet in combatting casteism in North America.
Post from www.aljazeera.com