Explained | Will the Seattle move shield against caste bias?

The story so far: On February 21, the Seattle City Council became the first U.S. city to ban caste-based discrimination. Defining 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, and yet had felt the long reach of the caste system, rooted in the Manusmriti with its rigid hierarchies, despite being part of the diaspora. While Dalit rights activists called the ordinance, proposed by council member Kshama Sawant, historic, it came under attack from groups like the Hindu American Foundation which said caste discrimination must be condemned but by “singling out South Asians,” the move would put communities like the Hindus under more legal scrutiny. Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, told The Hindu: “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 and two out of every three said they had faced discrimination at work.” The data, she said, are corroborated by hundreds of testimonies of caste-oppressed people who spoke up against discrimination at workplaces, places of worship, and in community relationships. Data Point podcast | Dissecting caste discrimination in Indian universities from admissions to placements: Part 1 | Part 2 Calling the Seattle ordinance a “great achievement,” Suraj Yengde, who documented the everyday humiliations faced by Dalits in his book Caste Matters, said, “we need to own up to it and have a sense of shame that such discrimination still occurs.