Government agrees to make "caste" an aspect of "race" under Equality Act 2010

The Government has tabled an amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill to add "caste" to the definition of "race" in the Equality Act 2010 after the House of Lords voted on 22 April 2013 for a second time in favour of the amendment. 

The current definition of race in the Equality Act 2010 refers only to colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins. While the Government retains the power under s.9 of the Equality Act 2010 to add caste to the definition of race, it had previously announced in a written ministerial statement (published on 1 March 2013) that it preferred to deal with the issue informally through an educational programme, rather than amend the Equality Act 2010. 

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 House of Commons voted against the amendment on 16 April 2013. 

On the return of the issue of caste discrimination to the House of Lords on 22 April 2013, the Lords again voted in favour of the amendment, after which the Government accepted that it would allow the amendment to the Equality Act 2010 to proceed. 

Also

Naveed v Aslam and another t/a Chilli Pink ET/1603968/2011 In this race discrimination case, the employment tribunal said that it could not interpret the Equality Act 2010 to cover caste discrimination when the claimant and alleged perpetrators are at different levels of the same caste.