{"id":228270,"date":"2026-05-12T06:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228270\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:02:08","slug":"new-york-bill-confronts-caste-discrimination-residents-face-at-work-and-in-public-institutions-advocates-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228270\/","title":{"rendered":"New York bill confronts caste discrimination residents face at work and in public institutions, advocates say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)\u2014independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it. Donate<\/a> to sustain Prism\u2019s mission and the humans behind it.<\/p>\n

As far as press conferences go, the first rally to support a bill to ban caste discrimination in New York was low-key. After previous efforts in Seattle and California faced highly coordinated countercampaigns from right-wing Hindu groups, organizers feared that the April 13 event would be disrupted if it had been publicized with social media posts or flyers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the press conference, held in Jackson Heights, Queens, during Dalit History Month, proceeded without a hitch. Dalit and other caste-oppressed New Yorkers stood with elected officials and other advocates to share why the bill\u2014which would create caste protections for employment, housing, and public accommodations\u2014was not based on hypothetical scenarios, but would have a material impact on the everyday lives of South Asians in the state.<\/p>\n

Caste is a hierarchical system that segregates people into categories of \u201chigh,\u201d \u201clow,\u201d and \u201cuntouchable\u201d castes based on their descent. Although its roots lie in Hinduism, over thousands of years, caste has also become part of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Sikhism across the South Asian subcontinent. Individuals born in higher castes, like Brahmins, often enjoy systemic and cultural privileges, while those from lower castes, like Dalits\u2014the self-described term for untouchable castes\u2014face systemic exclusion as well as social and cultural discrimination.<\/p>\n

Among those present at the rally was Swati Sawant, a Dalit lawyer who has worked on the bill for the past three years, drafting the language and securing support from legislators. In an interview with Prism, she recounted the experience of a Nepali restaurant worker who faced discrimination in 2018 from other workers at his job and was fired after he complained.<\/p>\n

\u201cCo-workers wouldn\u2019t eat with him. They would say, \u2018You are impure, untouchable.\u2019 And he faced difficulties,\u201d Sawant said. \u201cSo when he escalated this issue with his manager, the manager said, \u2018It\u2019s better that you leave than other people.\u2019\u201d Because New York does not legally recognize caste discrimination, she said she was unable to pursue his case.<\/p>\n

As South Asian communities have migrated and grown more prominent in the U.S. over the last several decades, caste discrimination has also become a bigger issue in the diaspora, where it has been actively and often covertly practiced, particularly in workplaces, housing, and intracommunity spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caste discrimination is happening every single day, not just in India and broader South Asia, but here in America, from the East Coast to the West Coast. We have to be very honest about this issue in our communities.<\/p>\n

Shekar Krishnan, New York City COuncil Member<\/p>\n

\u201cCaste discrimination is happening every single day, not just in India and broader South Asia, but here in America, from the East Coast to the West Coast,\u201d Shekar Krishnan, the first Indian and Hindu elected to the New York City Council, said at the press conference. \u201cWe have to be very honest about this issue in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Assemblymember Steven Raga introduced the bill<\/a>, along with state Sen. James Sanders. Unlike similar bills in California and Seattle, New York\u2019s caste discrimination bill has the support of several state and city lawmakers, including Zohran Mamdani, who as an assemblymember had been a co-sponsor<\/a> before becoming mayor of New York City in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raga represents District 30 in Queens that covers parts of Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Maspeth\u2014areas with large swaths of South Asian residents. Raga told Prism that he spent time with advocates and community members to understand how caste discrimination affects his constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople shared experiences of exclusion, harassment, and economic discrimination that too often go unaddressed because caste is not explicitly named in our laws,\u201d he said. \u201cMost civil rights laws do not name caste directly. In some cases, it is assumed that caste discrimination could fall under categories like race, religion, or ancestry, but that is not clearly defined in statute. That lack of clarity creates a real gap in enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attacks from the Hindu right<\/p>\n

Defining caste as a separate protected class could be crucial to whether the bill passes. In 2023, after months of agitation by Dalit activists and other supporters, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed<\/a> a bill banning caste discrimination as \u201cunnecessary,\u201d claiming that caste was included under the state\u2019s existing protected classes. However, according to<\/a> reports<\/a>, Newsom, who is vying for the presidency<\/a>, gave in to mounting pressure from influential Hindu donors who have been major fundraisers for Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

The countercampaign against California\u2019s caste discrimination bill is part of a larger movement that has gained traction in the last several years. Individuals associated with Hindu-right political ideology in the U.S. and other groups that oppose<\/a> the visibility of caste<\/a> have repeatedly disrupted events<\/a>, spam-bombed<\/a> virtual meetings and email inboxes, and doxed<\/a> and threatened<\/a> organizers attempting to speak about Hindutva<\/a>, the far-right offshoot of Hindu fundamentalism increasingly prevalent<\/a> in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar backlash<\/a> occurred<\/a> in Seattle, where a bill to codify caste protections championed by socialist and then-City Council Member Kshama Sawant was introduced in 2023. The bill was successful, and Seattle became<\/a> the first city in the U.S. to ban caste discrimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In both California and Seattle, some right-wing Hindu groups claimed<\/a> that caste isn\u2019t an integral part of Hinduism, while at the same time arguing that a caste discrimination ban would be \u201cHinduphobic<\/a>\u201d and prompt discrimination against Hindus.<\/p>\n

Sravya Tadepalli, deputy executive director of the advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights<\/a>, called such arguments \u201cridiculous.\u201d She pointed to a 2024 Carnegie Foundation survey<\/a> in which 77% of Indian Americans supported legal protections around caste. A 2025 study from Cornell Law School suggested<\/a> that about 77% of New York state residents support such laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight-wing Hindu groups claim to represent the entire Hindu community when they really don\u2019t,\u201d Tadepalli told Prism. \u201cThey are just a very vocal minority of the Hindu community, and they want to protect maybe their own caste privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), which has been accused of<\/a> ties to<\/a> Hindutva<\/a>, has argued<\/a> that the New York caste discrimination bill would \u201cunfairly target\u201d Hindu and Indian American communities in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscrimination is already covered under existing law, and we condemn any kind of discrimination. Any individual or organization that faces discrimination needs to immediately get recourse, and current law covers that,\u201d Pushpita Prasad, CoHNA\u2019s chief communications officer, told Prism. \u201cTrying to add the word caste into as a separate provision singles out people of Hindu and Indian American and South Asian origin. And that is not a proper thing to do in a law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prasad also pushed back on claims that CoHNA is affiliated with Hindutva.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople with privilege and people with elite backgrounds, it\u2019s very easy for them to silence an immigrant-heavy community and try to label them. And that\u2019s been used against almost every Hindu who speaks up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe reject any attempts of people to define our faith for us or to silence us for exhibiting and practicing our religion as we desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

CoHNA has organized<\/a> with<\/a> Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which the CIA has designated<\/a> as a \u201creligious militant group.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Raga and other advocates, the bill avoids emphasizing any religious community and encompasses discrimination faced by individuals from South Asia as well as people from Roma communities and parts of Japan, where similar systems of exclusion exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaste discrimination exists across different backgrounds and is about conduct, not identity,\u201d Raga said.<\/p>\n

Hindus for Human Rights is among the supporters of the bill. Anuraag, an organizer for the group who spoke at the press conference, told Prism, \u201cI support this bill because it is important to stand up for people who are discriminated against, and that\u2019s part of our sacred duty and our faith.\u201d Anuraag, who does not go by their last name, added that they witnessed incidents of caste discrimination at the tech company where they used to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everyday discrimination<\/p>\n

Caste-based workplace discrimination has been a major area of focus among advocates. In 2020, a Dalit engineer at Cisco<\/a> took the tech company and Brahmin Hindu managers to court in California for discrimination he faced on the job. In New York, upper-caste employees at Google successfully coerced<\/a> management to cancel a talk by a Dalit activist in 2022. Tanuja Gupta, who organized the event and later resigned<\/a> over the retaliation she said she faced from Google, talked about the incident at the press conference for the New York bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill is critical because it not only clarifies law, but it also forces a reckoning within all of these companies to understand what caste is and how to prevent caste discrimination within their workforces,\u201d Gupta told Prism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pabitra Dash, a Dalit senior organizer at Adhikaar<\/a>, a Nepali women-led community and workers\u2019 rights organization based in Queens, also shared the experience of Dalit Nepali worker Deepa Sunar, who was told during a job interview for a nanny position last year that she wasn\u2019t qualified because of her caste.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me, \u2018Sorry, there is no job for you,\u2019\u201d Dash recounted in Sunar\u2019s words. \u201cI lost a job opportunity because of my caste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Shri Guru Ravidass Temple, a Dalit gurudwara in Woodside, Queens, described discrimination they\u2019ve experienced in places of worship because of their caste.<\/p>\n

Balbir Chumber, a member of the temple, told Prism that in the \u201980s, local Sikh temples refused to allow him and his wife to conduct their wedding ceremony on their premises, referring to him as \u201cchamaron ka ladka,\u201d or the son of a lower-caste Chamar. Avtar Bhatia, another member of the temple, recalled how the women in his family would often encounter casteist, misogynistic remarks when visiting Sikh temples, eventually leading them to pool their money to construct the only Dalit Sikh place of worship in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Community advocates meet with New York Assemblymember Ron Kim as he listens to the testimonies from those directly impacted by caste discrimination, in Albany, N.Y, on May 5, 2026. Credit: Yashica Dutt<\/p>\n

On May 5, a coalition of Dalits and advocates traveled to Albany to meet with lawmakers, several of whom pledged their support for the bill after hearing testimonies of caste discrimination from those directly impacted by it. (Disclosure: The reporter of this story helped organize the press conference and was part of the coalition.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the bill remains in committee, where it has yet to be scheduled for a hearing, advocates are hopeful that the rising momentum around the bill could turn it into law.<\/p>\n

Shalini, a Dalit community organizer who was part of the coalition and did not give her last name, situated the fight for caste protections in New York within the larger civil rights movement in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movement is rooted in equality and pluralism, and really healing, for a community that has been long oppressed, who just wants to safeguard [their] rights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Correction, May 11, 2026: Sravya Tadepalli\u2019s title has been updated from political director to deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights. In the main image caption, Hardev Sahay of Begumpura Cultural Society is speaking, not Pinder Paul.<\/p>\n

Editorial Team:
Rashmee Kumar, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor<\/p>\n

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