California Assembly passes landmark anti-caste discrimination bill

San Francisco: In a groundbreaking move towards eradicating caste-based bias and bolstering social equity, the California State Assembly on Monday, passed the anti-caste discrimination bill with an overwhelming 50 votes in favour and only three against it.

It was earlier passed by the state’s Senate in May this year with a 34-1 vote. Earlier in February, Seattle became the first city in the US to outlaw caste discrimination.

The passing of this bill marks a historic achievement, making California the first U.S. state to officially outlaw caste discrimination.

Introduced by Senator Aisha Wahab, a Democratic Party lawmaker, in March, the legislation adds caste as a protected category under 'ancestry' in California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, Education, and Housing codes.

According to the act, all people in the state of California are entitled to full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments.

After the approval on Monday, the bill will now move to the Senate for its final concurrence vote on the amended version of the Bill, before Governor Gavin Newsom signs it into official state law.

"Thank you to all the Assembly members who voted in support of SB 403 today. We are protecting people from a long-standing form of discrimination with SB 403," Wahab said on X.

Among Indian-Americans, lawmakers Jasmeet Bains and Ash Kalra supported the bill, which was introduced in the Senate just weeks after Seattle became the first city in the US to ban caste discrimination.

The Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA), a non-profit working towards underprivileged castes, called the development “landmark”, “historic” and “unprecedented”.

"This is what Educate, Agitate and Organize looks like," AANA wrote on X.

“California is still a state that stands for civil rights,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, was cited as saying in The Sacramento Bee.

“I think the opponents lead with ‘caste doesn’t exist’ and then lead with political violence, and lead with insinuation and fear and bigotry. That won’t get you very far in California,” Soundararajan said, mentioning the death threats reported by activists and Senator Wahab.

A lot of Hindu groups in the US expressed strong opposition to SB 403, which they said would specifically add "caste" to California non-discrimination policy.

Many of them feared that codifying caste in public policy will further fuel instances of Hinduphobia in the US.

Calling the bill's passing as a "black day for California history", advocacy group Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), said that "casteism and Hinduphobic profiling won today".

"The passing of a bill which is not facially neutral and written to specifically target Hindu Americans is the latest in a long line of unjust bills, which were popular at the time of their passing and were used to target minorities of colour," CoHNA said on X on Monday.

"This bill will be no different and is indeed worse."

The movement to add caste as a protected category in the United States is propelled by a multi-faith and inter-caste coalition of Dalit and human rights organisations coordinated by Equality Labs.

However, the Bill was staunchly opposed by a section of Indian-American residents who argue that it will 'discriminate against Hindus' and 'racially profile select communities on the basis of their ethnicity and ancestry for disparate treatment'.

With agency inputs

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