Take action! This consultation is open to the public and so Humanists UK encourages those with an interest and knowledge of equality legislation or those with experience of caste discrimination in the UK to submit a response. You can read Humanists UK’s full response as a guide for your own. Deadline for submissions is Monday 18 September.
Humanists UK has submitted a response to a consultation by the Government Equalities Office on how (if at all) caste should be added as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. This would make discrimination on the basis of caste, whether in employment, education or in access to services, against the law. Humanists UK rejects the notion of caste and recognises that differences of treatment based on this notion have no rational basis and should not be permitted in our society. Humanists UK hopes that this consultation will ignite government action on this issue.
In 2013, the House of Lords laid a duty upon the Government to make specific legal protection against caste discrimination in domestic legislation, by making caste an aspect of race for the purposes of the Equality Act. This duty required the Government by law to amend the Equality Act. However, since 2013 it has failed to act on this duty, arguing that caste discrimination does not exist in the UK, that the issue is too divisive to address, and incorrectly asserting caste is already protected through the development of case law.
However, the evidence from government-commissioned studies and campaign groups suggests that caste discrimination not only exists in the UK, but could adversely affect between 50,000 and 200,000 people. Throughout its consultation response, Humanists UK argues that all forms of discrimination on the basis of an indelible, or perceived indelible, characteristic is fundamentally unjust and should be prohibited by law. Making caste discrimination illegal, and seen to be illegal, on the face of the Equality Act will have a positive normative effect. This has been the case with other protected characteristics already covered by the Act, including racist, sexist, and homophobic behaviour.
Humanists UK Campaigns Officer Rachel Taggart-Ryan commented, ‘We support the specific inclusion of caste as an aspect of race in the Equality Act because it is the most effective action for the Government to take to eliminate caste discrimination. It has become clear from the few cases that have been brought before employment tribunals that the law as it stands is unclear. These cases have failed to establish whether caste is already prohibited under the ethnic or national origins provision of the Act and of themselves do not form binding case law on this subject. Therefore the main alternative to the legislative route we are recommending has been shown to be inadequate. The legislative route is required to bring clarity to the current situation.’
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For further comment or information, please contact Humanists UK Campaigns Officer on rachel@humanists.uk or 0207 324 3065.
Read our full consultation response here: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017-05-24-RTR-Consultation-Response-on-Caste-discrimination.pdf
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