On February 21, Seattle turned the primary metropolis within the United States (US) to ban caste-based discrimination. Since the ban, Indian-origin Sawant stated she has acquired overwhelming response from throughout the nation and even from throughout the pond within the United Kingdom (UK).

“I’ve acquired an outpouring of help from cities throughout the US and nations world wide with South Asian populations, particularly the UK. Organisations and bizarre residents have gotten in contact with me, asking what must be achieved to attain related laws of their cities,’’ the four-time council member instructed The Indian Express from Seattle.

The laws prohibits businesses from discriminating based on caste with respect to hiring, tenure, promotion, workplace conditions or wages. Besides banning caste discrimination in locations of public lodging, comparable to inns, public transportation, public restrooms and retail institutions, it can additionally prohibit housing discrimination in rental housing leases, property gross sales and mortgage loans.

The laws has relied on the findings of a 2018 report by Equality Labs, ‘Caste in the United States: A Survey of Caste Among South Asian Americans’. Of the over 1,500 folks surveyed, 24 per cent had been Dalits and 18 per cent “shudras”. The report discovered that 25 per cent of the Dalits surveyed confronted verbal or bodily assault based mostly on their caste, one in three Dalit college students reported discrimination through the course of training, two out of three Dalits reported being handled unfairly within the office, 60 per cent Dalits confronted derogatory caste-based jokes, 40 per cent Dalits and 14 per cent “shudras” had been made to really feel unwelcome in locations of worship, and 20 per cent Dalits felt discriminated towards at locations of enterprise.

“In the US, caste discrimination just isn’t talked about as a lot. Of course, you wouldn’t have the type of oppression and violence meted out to individuals of decrease caste such as you would in India, however we’ve got positively been seeing increasingly situations of caste discrimination right here prior to now 4-5 years, particularly within the office. Discrimination happens in different establishments as properly, however the information that we’ve got accessible and the testimonials are largely from the office.

This is very so within the tech sector, the place we all know such instances have occurred. Workers on this sector come ahead as a result of they’re extra emboldened, not like in lower-income jobs the place decrease caste employees don’t discuss discrimination brazenly as typically due to concern of reprisal,’’stated Sawant.

According to a 2021 article by the Migration Policy Institute, 14.1 million immigrants from Asia had been residing within the US as of 2019, representing a 29-fold improve from the 1960. Asians account for 31 per cent of the 44.9 million immigrants within the US. Since 2013, India and China have been the main origin nations, displacing Mexico. In 2019, India, China and the Philippines had been the highest origin nations of immigrants from Asia, with 2.7 million Indians and a couple of.5 million Chinese (19 per cent and 18 per cent of Asian immigrants respectively).

Development on the laws took solely two months, stated Sawant, including that it was a pure consequence of the work her get together had achieved since she first took workplace in 2014. “We are a small party and I am the only elected member, and we’re okay with that. We don’t have ambitions of becoming a national party. Our focus is bettering worker conditions and those of the common people, and not personal gain in [terms of] money or power, like it is for mainstream politicians …,” she stated.

In 2014, Sawant pushed for a rise in minimal wage within the metropolis to $15 and received. In 2020, she took on Seattle’s largest company by launching the “Tax Amazon Campaign”. Once once more, she succeeded. It led to the passing of the “JumpStart Seattle” tax in 2021.

Sawant has additionally efficiently fought for renter rights in Seattle, together with a laws that mandates a 6-month discover to tenants by landlords earlier than growing lease and landlords paying tenants lease for 3 months within the occasion it’s raised by over 10 per cent. “Seattle has one of the highest numbers of renters in the country. With more and more Americans unable to buy homes, unlike previous generations, due to higher cost of living, homelessness has been on the rise — in the US as a whole and in Seattle in particular. We needed to address this issue,” stated Sawant, who’s the Chair of the Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee within the Council.

However, it was the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)-National Register of Citizens (NRC) decision that she launched within the Seattle Council in January 2020, after the Narendra Modi administration’s announcement, that served as a precursor to the ban on caste discrimination.

“After the Modi administration announced CAA-NRC, many Indian-American organisations, including the Indian American Muslim Council and the Global Indian Progressive Alliance, came together to urge the Seattle City Council to condemn it. We were joined by many south Asian organisations — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians — as well as by non-South Asian workers’ unions in the movement. We faced stiff resistance from the Council, dominated by Democrats, who were angry that such a demand was being made. They had nothing to gain from condemning the CAA-NRC and wanted to stay neutral. The activists fighting for the resolution were surprised by this resistance,” recalled Sawant.

But the decision was handed by the Seattle Council in 2020. So was an identical decision, additionally led by Sawant, in help of the farmers’ motion in India. She stated these battles united the South Asian neighborhood in Seattle, spurring them to tackle a problem that has grow to be more and more seen — caste discrimination in America.

Over 100 representations had been made, together with an in-person illustration from Prem Pariyar, an American of Nepalese descent who was instrumental within the ban towards caste-discrimination on the California State University system, she stated. Sawant was additionally joined by members of the Ravidass neighborhood from British Columbia in Canada.

Equating the motion with Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the motion towards the upturning of Roe vs Wade (the precise to decide on abortion), she stated, “All these actions are towards oppression — whether or not it’s gender or race or caste. Any struggle can solely achieve success if there may be mass motion by all sections of society. BLM is the largest avenue motion within the historical past of the US. This can be as a result of activists, employees and White folks walked shoulder to shoulder with their Black colleagues. Roe Vs Wade is just profitable if males help abortion rights in addition to ladies. It is similar for caste. We need to ask ourselves if we wish to stay in a society which has caste discrimination. I’m a Brahmin, however that is as a lot my struggle as anyone else’s.’’

Sawant added that solely a mass motion can compel larger mainstream events, whether or not the Republicans or the Democrats, to be aware of the problem.

As far as Sawant’s subsequent battle is worried, she won’t be working for the subsequent Seattle Council election. “I have been in the Council for a decade. It is time to move on. It is time to take the movement national. On March 4, the Socialist Alternative will launch the Workers Strike Back campaign, addressing the cost of living crisis, discrimination and oppression,” she stated.