Bill seeking ban on caste bias tabled in California

Washington, March 23

A bill seeking to explicitly ban caste discrimination has been introduced in the California Senate by a Democratic lawmaker, which, if passed, could make America’s most populous state also the country’s first to outlaw caste-based bias.

State Senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state legislature, introduced the bill on Wednesday.

“This legislation is about righters of workers, women, queer,” said Wahab after introducing the legislation.

“We want to ensure organisations and companies do not entrench caste discrimination in their practices or policies, and in order to do that we need to make it plainly clear that discrimination based on caste is against the law,” she said.

The move came exactly one month after Seattle became the first city of the United States to outlaw caste discrimination.