AMN / WEB DESK
WEB DESK
In United States the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of a Bill if passed would outlaw caste discrimination in California.
On Tuesday, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the legislation, sending it on to the next committee for consideration. If passed, the bill could make California the first state in the nation to make caste bias illegal by adding it as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
State Senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state legislature, introduced the bill last month. Tuesday’s hearing showed just how contentious the issue has been in the South Asian community, with hundreds of supporters and opponents gathering outside the state Capitol with signs.
“We’ve hit a nerve and exposed a form of discrimination many never even knew existed,” said Wahab, D-Hayward, who told committee members that she has received death threats after proposing this legislation.
“Caste is an invisible shackle placed on people at birth. Those of us not raised in that system can’t possibly understand what it does to one’s psyche, the intergenerational trauma it causes.”