Civil rights advocates are calling on a U.S. agency to recognize that caste discrimination is illegal under existing federal law, an issue growing more prominent as tech companies are hit with litigation by South Asian workers alleging bias based on social status.
The group, over a 100 years old, has recently come under scrutiny for casteist labor practices in New Jersey.
U.S. authorities recently raided a large and well-known Hindu temple in New Jersey that they said had exploited Dalit workers from the “lowest” bracket of India’s caste system. The men had been categorized as “lay religious workers” for immigration purposes but were instead employed in back-breaking labor for $1/hour.
FBI agents were at a large Hindu temple in New Jersey on Tuesday as a new lawsuit claimed it was built by workers from marginalized communities in India who were lured to the U.S. and forced to work long hours for just a few dollars per day.
many US companies employ Indian immigrants to work in technology and, as has only recently been revealed, casteism seems to follow them. The statistics suggest that less than 2 per cent of the Indian immigrants that make up senior executives in the US are from ‘lower’ castes.
In June, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing initiated a lawsuit against Cisco, a multibillion-dollar tech conglomerate, for caste discrimination against an engineer of Indian descent. However, the situation isn’t as straightforward as it would have been if the alleged discrimination had been based on race. Because US law does not officially recognise the old Indian caste system, technically, “casteism” cannot be an offence.
Nodeep Kaur – a Dalit woman and a trade union activist who joined the agitation against the new agri-marketing laws in the early days of November. She was arrested on January 12 – weeks before the mass arrests that happened in New Delhi on January 26 over the tractor rally violence. Nodeep has been denied bail twice because of a range of charges slapped against her, including Section 307 – attempt to murder.
The Global Slavery Index estimates that 3,186,000 people are held in modern forms of slavery in Pakistan, ranking the country at 8th place among the world’s 167 nations with the highest prevalence of modern slavery. The most common form of modern slavery prevalent in Pakistan is bonded labour, mainly in agriculture and brick kilns sectors (production of bricks).
While working to rehabilitate and support manual scavengers, one of the first steps should be to recognise the women engaged in this work and prioritise their needs.
Two years ago, the centennial International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference agreed that occupational health and safety should become a fundamental right at work. The death toll of work – five people every minute of every hour of every day around the world – was so tragic that action was needed.
Need and objectives for EU intervention on sustainable corporate governance
The Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development (EMRTD) has identified five themes on which it intends to submit studies to the Human Rights Council during its mandate term. One of these studies is on Racism, racial discrimination and the right to development. Article 5 of the Declaration on the Right to Development enjoinsstates to take resolute steps to eliminate the violations of the human rights of peoples affected by racism and racial discrimination. The elimination of racism is therefore recognized as essential to fulfilling the right to development.
Disclosing that several actions that post-conflict countries are mandatorily required to accomplish remain unaddressed in Nepal, the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), a leading human rights organization in the country, documented 5,543 victims of human rights violations in 2020.
In connection with their participation in the 44th Human Rights Council session, states are encouraged to consider the ongoing and systemic practice of discrimination based on work and descent, also known as caste-based discrimination, affecting more than 260 million people globally.
Manual pit-emptying – the removal of faecal sludge from pits and tanks using hands or basic tools – is a widespread practice in Bangladesh, and in other low- and middle-income countries. Despite this, little is known about the livelihoods of pit-emptiers. This paper analyses data from six cases of pit-emptying in three cities in Bangladesh, across three different operational modes: private cooperatives, government employees and self-employed workers.
For the preparation of the report, consultations and discussions have been held with more than 223 Dalit civil society organizations and other human rights organizations in Nepal. The report has been prepared consulting with various stakeholders, concerned members, experts/specialists at state government and Prime Minister's office, concerned ministries, parliamentary committees, honorable members of parliament, Dalit commission, women commission among others, Dalit people's organizations, civil society, human rights activists and Dalit civil society's heads and representatives and journalists.
This is the fact sheet by DNF and IDSN on the UPR of Nepal, listing recommendations, that have been responded to and noted, as well as the national framework of Nepal.
In several states in India, prison manuals still dictate that labour within the prison should be assigned on the basis of caste.
This Professor’s Experience Clearly Proves How Casteist Our Academic Institutions Are