California could become the first state in the nation to ban caste-based prejudice, a protection people of South Asian descent say is necessary to protect them from discrimination in housing, education and the tech sector where they play a key role.

State Senator Aisha Wahab

(D Hayward)

the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state

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legislature, introduced the bill on Wednesday. It adds caste, a division of people based on birth or ancestry, as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

Those belonging to the lowest strata of the caste system, known as Dalits, have increasingly called for such legislation as they have faced this type of discrimination in the United States. But such policies continue to be divisive.

Wahab said caste discrimination is a social justice and civil rights issue.

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People came to this country so they can be free and pursue their American dream without any disruption to their lives,” Wahab said.

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she learned about this form of discrimination while growing up in Fremont, California, and living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But some groups, such as the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America, oppose such policies. They argue that these measures will harm a community already experiencing hatred and discrimination, and will specifically target Hindus and Indian Americans commonly associated with the caste system. The legislation is supported by other groups, such as Hindus for Human Rights and Hindus for Caste. equity.

According to a 2016 United Nations report, at least 250 million people worldwide continue to face caste discrimination in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific, as well as in various diaspora communities. Caste systems are found among Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Muslims and Sikhs.

Wahab said she is very sensitive to how minority religions and groups are portrayed.

Caste goes beyond religion and nationality, she said. This legislation primarily protects millions who live in silence and have never had such protection because of little understanding. This bill is about protecting people who are vulnerable.

In February, Seattle became the first city in the US and the first jurisdiction outside South Asia to add caste to anti-discrimination laws. Several colleges and universities have also issued similar policies prohibiting caste discrimination on campuses, including the University of California, Davis.

A 2020 survey of Indian Americans by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that caste discrimination was reported by 5% of respondents. While 53% of foreign-born Hindu Indian Americans said they join a caste group, only 34% of US-born Hindu Indian Americans said they do the same.

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However, a 2016 Equality Labs survey of 1,500 South Asians in the US found that 67% of Dalits who responded reported being treated unfairly because of their caste.

California “has been ground zero for the caste equity movement,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and executive director of Oakland, California-based Equality Labs, a Dalit advocacy group.

This legislation is about clarifying existing protections and making them explicit, she said.

According to a 2021 report from the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, Asians, including South Asians, hold 37.8% of engineering positions and 25.3% of executive positions at Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies.

In 2020, California regulators sued Cisco Systems saying an Indian Dalit engineer faced caste discrimination at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. In another case, Tanuja Gupta quit her job as a senior manager at Google News last year after a backlash over inviting Soundararajan to speak to employees in April, Dalit History Month. The call was canceled and Gupta accused her former employer of retaliation, which Google has denied.

Gupta said she supports the bill because those facing caste discrimination currently have no protection or remedy.

This is the kind of accountability we need, she said. People are afraid to speak out when they are discriminated against because they are afraid of rocking the boat and they are afraid of losing their job or work visa. It’s a tough cycle to break and you can only do it if someone is willing to risk it all.

Caste is not a religious issue, but a civil rights issue, Gupta said.

Shakeel Syed, executive director of South Asian Network in Artesia, California, said he sees caste discrimination among employees and has assisted in cases where caste played a role in wage theft and housing discrimination.

If hard-working people aren’t respected or valued just because of their caste, that’s flat out wrong, he said.

___Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.