“Exclusion of caste from discrimination policies makes companies caste-blind. Emerging research suggests caste-based losses to companies are similar to those due to a lack of gender and race diversity.”
Satyajit Amin argues that the Indian diaspora needs to confront widespread casteism in their communities and renew efforts to pass anti-discrimination legislation.
BBC Asian Network’s host of the Big Debate, Nomia Iqbal, led a live debate on the caste legislation in the UK. Satpal Muman, Chair of CasteWatch UK and Satish Sharma, from the National Council of Hindu Temples, were in the studio and DSN-UK Director, Meena Varma called in.
Domestic servitude inflicted on Dalits, the ‘untouchable’ lowest Indian caste, was supposed to have been made illegal in Britain. Why hasn’t the law been implemented?
The British government is yet to announce details of its planned consultation on incorporating protection against caste discrimination into the U.K. equality law, but within the Indian community the debate is already in full swing.
Dalit women and girls often suffer the greatest indignities – most of India’s 1.3 million so-called ‘manual scavengers’ are female. For those unfamiliar with the euphemism, manual scavengers clean up the excrement of other castes with their bare hands to eke out a meagre existence. So I was very keen to meet some of these women and try to understand how they live. You might be surprised to read I came away with some hope! Thanks to a partnership between the DFID-funded Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme and the Jan Sahas Development Society (which literally means ‘people’s courage’), Dalit women are being helped to stand up and demand their rights as human beings. Thousands of families have been helped out of manual scavenging and trained in alternate employment. Jan Sahas also brings violence against Dalit women to the attention of the government and media. Of course there is a long way to go yet. I spoke with some Dalit women who had been raped by men from upper castes and are struggling to receive any justice. Though they worked up the courage to report the crimes against them to the police, they and their families have been repaid with threats and intimidation, not just by their rapists but the police themselves. Nevertheless, I found hope in that more and more Dalit women and girls are standing up for themselves and demanding their rights. And when I asked what they thought about their future prospects, it was really heartening to hear a group of Dalit children tell me they were confident their future is going to be brighter than their mothers’.
"It is increasingly clear for example that the maintenance of this social system provides competitive advantage to South Asia, particularly India, in the globalising political economy. Caste-based apartheid underpins the “camp coolie” and “Sumangali” systems allowing the powerful to enslave with impunity vulnerable workers, often young Dalit women and girls, and hence to derive considerable profits from their enslavement. Each of us in this room is also benefiting from that enslavement as it allows, amongst other things, the provision of cheap clothes to our high streets and so, each of us is probably clad in at least one garment that has been produced in some part through the labour of enslaved people. Making the issue of caste-based apartheid undiscussable insulates it politically and allows the elite greater security in their feudal level of aristocratic privilege: how can something become a political issue if one cannot even give voice to the question?"
"Desraj Bunger a leader in the Guru Ravidass Sabha UK Community says the government must take action.He said: "The caste problems we're having in this country have followed us from India... our government needs to support us because we're desperately in need of their help."
Blog on caste discrimination in the United Kingdom - By Santosh Dass
Two reports published in the UK confirm that caste discrimination “cannot be tolerated and should be included in the protections against discrimination and harassment provided in the Equality Act 2010” and comment that the proposed sunset clause, “for a non-discrimination ground is legally without precedent and goes against this key differential”
From caste discrimination through forced marriages to sex-selective abortions, entrenched practices among sections of the British South Asian diaspora pose continuing challenges. From caste discrimination through forced marriages to sex-selective abortions, entrenched practices among sections of the British South Asian diaspora pose continuing challenges. Caste discrimination is common enough; the European Parliament passed a resolution in 2013 calling for EU institutions to include procedures against it in their dealings with caste-affected countries.Editorial