• Caste discrimination is a serious issue in the US.
• With South Asian People facing discrimination.
• They are facing discriminations in job, education, and housing.

A council member in Seattle has made significant progress in the fight against the practice of putting forth the first-ever US legislation that expressly forbids caste-based discrimination.

South Asian People endure caste discrimination in job, education, and housing, according to Kshama Sawant, the lone Indian-American city councilor in Seattle, who made the legislation’s proposal last month.

She wants to make the city’s anti-discrimination law more comprehensive to include caste-based targets.

In nations like India, where Dalits, historically known as “untouchables,” are at the bottom of the hierarchy, the two-millennium-old caste system is still in use.

In Seattle, which is home to an estimated 75,000 Indian Americans, Sawant claims the new legislation, which will be put to a vote on February 21, would help eradicate a “invisible and unacknowledged” type of prejudice.

“Caste discrimination is a very serious issue in the United States,” Sawant told reputed media outlet.

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“Lower-caste community members from South Asian and other immigrant backgrounds often face discrimination, especially in the workplace,” added.

Despite being outlawed in India formally in 1950, the caste system still permeates many elements of daily life and has even spread to diaspora populations in the West.

In this system, caste is enforced at birth, and members of lower castes are given menial jobs that are deemed inappropriate for upper castes.

At least 25% of Dalits in the nation reported having experienced verbal or physical attack, and two out of three claimed they had experienced unfair treatment at work, according to the first-ever poll on caste prejudice in the US, performed in 2016 by Equality Labs.

More legal safeguards against caste discrimination have been demanded by many.

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