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.
- Written ministerial statement: caste discrimination (PDF format, 93K) (on the UK Parliament website) Read the written ministerial statement on caste discrimination in full.
- House of Lords caste discrimination debate (on the UK Parliament website) Read the House of Lords debate on caste discrimination.
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:
- Caste discrimination: Indian couple claim discrimination against law firm In Begraj v Heer Manak Solicitors, an Indian husband and wife who became a couple while working at a law firm in Coventry are claiming at an employment tribunal that they were discriminated against because he is from a lower caste than her.
- Caste discrimination update: ACDA gives evidence to United Nations committee The Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance's (ACDA's) evidence to the United Nation's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has resulted in CERD recommending that the UK Government amend the Equality Act 2010 to add caste to the current definition of race.
- Caste discrimination claim collapses after police interrupt tribunal proceedings The employment judge has excused herself from the test caste discrimination claim in Begraj v Heer Manak Solicitors after police officers visited her over 30 days into proceedings and handed over information that she felt biased her view of the case.