Seattle has become the first US city to ban caste discrimination as its council added caste to the anti-discrimination laws. Supporters of the ordinance said that case discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries and that without such laws, those facing caste discrimination will have no protections.
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The city council members voted as activists and organizers on different sides of the issue began arriving in Seattle. Earlier, more than 100 people had put in requests to speak at the meeting as several activists waited for their chance to speak to the council before the vote.
Council Member Kshama Sawant, the only Indian American on the Seattle City Council, said that the ordinance does not single out one community. Over the past three years, several colleges and university systems have moved to prohibit caste discrimination in the United States.
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In December 2019, Brandeis University became the first US college to include caste in its nondiscrimination policy and California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all adopted similar measures.
Harvard University also included caste protections for student workers in 2021 as part of its contract with its graduate student union.
The measure in Seattle has the support of Dalit activist-led organizations like Equality Labs among others, Associated Press reported. Opposition to this ordinance came from groups such as the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America, the report added.
