Will the Seattle move shield against caste bias?

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• About the Ordinance Passed by Seattle City Council
• Have cases of Caste Discrimination been Documented?
• Criticism of the Ordinance Passed by Seattle City Council
• Caste-based Discrimination in India
• Data on Caste-based Discrimination in India

 

Why in News?

On February 21, the Seattle City Council became the first city in the United States of America (USA) to ban caste-based discrimination.

 

About the Ordinance Passed by Seattle City Council

• Amending the City Municipal Code, an ordinance was issued, which includes caste as a class to be protected against discrimination, alongside race, gender, and religion.
• The Seattle City Council defined caste as a “rigid social stratification characterised by hereditary status, endogamy and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law or religion”.
• The council said discrimination based on caste was occurring in Seattle and that the legislation would prohibit “such caste-based discrimination against individuals.”
• The fight to address caste discrimination was led by Dalit rights activists and organisations like Equality Labs and other local groups, many of whom originally hailed from India.

 

Have cases of Caste Discrimination been Documented?

• The Equality Labs 2016 Caste in the United States survey found that one in four Dalits in the U.S. had faced verbal or physical assault.

o   Also, two out of every three said they had faced discrimination at work.

• The data are corroborated by hundreds of testimonies of caste-oppressed people who spoke up against discrimination at workplaces, places of worship, and in community relationships.

 

Criticism of the Ordinance Passed by Seattle City Council

• The ordinance can be seen as something that could lead to further “anti-Hindu discrimination”.
• The lone dissenter, Council Member Sara Nelson, echoed some of these concerns.

o   She said, “this could generate more anti-Hindu discrimination and could dissuade employers from hiring South Asians”.

• One of the critics pointed out saying, “When Seattle should be protecting the civil rights of all its residents, it is actually violating them by running roughshod over the most basic and fundamental rights in US law, all people being treated equally.”
• Another criticism of the move has been regarding the research done before the law was passed.
• Shobha Swamy, a representative of the Coalition of Hindus of North America, said that “Due diligence wasn’t done”.

 

Caste-based Discrimination in India

• According to the Census 2011 data, there are an estimated 20 crore Dalits in India.
• To address the social discrimination that arose out of the practice of untouchability, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 was enacted, recognising Hindu Dalits as Scheduled Castes.

o   This was later amended to include Dalits who had converted to Sikhism and Buddhism.

• Article 15 of the Constitution lays down that no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
• The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions seeking inclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims as Scheduled Castes.

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Data on Caste-based Discrimination in India

• Despite stringent laws and reservation policies providing benefits to the marginalised, caste violence and discrimination continue.
• In 2021, 50,900 cases of crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) were registered, an increase of 1.2% over 2020 (50,291 cases), according to National Crime Records Bureau data.
• The rate of crime was particularly high in Madhya Pradesh (63.6 per lakh in a SC population of 113.4 lakh) and Rajasthan (61.6 per lakh in a SC population of 112.2 lakh).

 

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Q1) What is Article 15 in the Constitution?

Article 15 of the Constitution of India forbids discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. It applies Article 14's general principle of equality in specific situations by forbidding classifications made on protected grounds.

Q2) What is Article 17 Right to Equality?

Article 17 prohibits the practice of untouchability. Untouchability is abolished in all forms. Any disability arising out of untouchability is made an offence.

 

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Source: Explained | Will the Seattle move shield against caste bias? | Indian Express