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.

What’s in today’s article?

• About the Ordinance (Provisions, Data, Criticism)
• Situation in India (Legal Provisions, Data, etc.)

About the Ordinance:

• 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.
  • 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 this Ordinance:

• 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.
  • She said, “this could generate more anti-Hindu discrimination and could dissuade employers from hiring South Asians”.
• 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.
• Critics also point out towards the fact that “Due diligence wasn’t done”.

What is the status 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.
  • 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.

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).