Government wants to educate, rather than legislate, over caste discrimination

The Government has said that it has no current plans to add "caste" to the definition of "race" in the Equality Act 2010 and is instead to run an educational programme to raise awareness of caste discrimination among affected groups, including employers. 

The announcement, which was made in a written ministerial statement published on 1 March 2013, says that the Government has appointed community-interest group "Talk for a change" to engage with the affected communities during the educational programme. The programme will be aimed at the affected communities, particularly the Hindu and Sikh communities, and other interested groups such as employers. 

The current definition of race in the Equality Act 2010 refers only to colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins. The Government retains the power under s.9 of the Equality Act 2010 to add caste to the definition of race. 

The statement concludes that the Government has "decided not to exercise the caste power contained in the Equality Act 2010 at the present time - though we have no plans to remove the power from the Act, in case this position should change". 

Note: On 4 March 2013, the House of Lords debated caste discrimination and voted that the Equality Act 2010 should be amended to make provision for caste discrimination. The issue now returns to the House of Commons. 

Also

In the last few years, the XpertHR Tribunal Watch blog has been following the progress of the caste discrimination proposal and one of the first cases to consider caste discrimination in an employment tribunal: