BY DEEPA BHARATH | Related Press
The California Civil Rights Division has voluntarily dismissed its case alleging caste discrimination towards two Cisco engineers, whereas nonetheless maintaining alive its litigation towards the corporate.
The 2 Cisco supervisors had been accused within the division’s lawsuit of discriminating and harassing an worker on the idea of caste – a division of individuals primarily based on delivery or descent. That case was dismissed by an order of the Santa Clara Superior County Court docket final week. The worker belonged to the Dalit group, a gaggle that's on the backside rung of the caste system which took root and developed in India and elsewhere within the subcontinent.
The Civil Rights Division despatched a press release to the Related Press this week saying the case towards Cisco “stays ongoing.”
“We'll proceed to vigorously litigate the matter on behalf of the folks of California,” it mentioned, including that it stays dedicated to “securing aid and making certain firm broad, corrective motion.”
A Cisco spokesperson declined to remark, citing ongoing litigation.
California’s lawsuit towards Cisco, filed in July 2020, alleges that the Dalit engineer acquired much less pay and fewer alternatives and that the defendants retaliated towards him when he opposed “illegal practices, opposite to the normal order between the Dalit and better castes.” The engineer labored on a staff at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters with Indians who all immigrated to the U.S. as adults, and all of whom had been of excessive caste, the lawsuit acknowledged.
The caste system in India and different South Asian international locations, in addition to the diaspora, locations Dalits on the backside of a social hierarchy. In 1948, a 12 months after independence from British rule, India banned discrimination on the idea of caste, a legislation that turned enshrined within the nation’s structure in 1950.
The lawsuit towards Cisco and its engineers fueled a motion towards caste discrimination led by teams akin to Oakland-based Equality Labs. This lawsuit has additionally been named in groundbreaking actions together with the first-in-the-nation ordinance handed by the Seattle Metropolis Council in February to incorporate caste in its anti-discrimination legal guidelines. Final month, California State Sen. Aisha Wahab proposed a invoice, which if it passes, may make the state the primary within the nation to outlaw caste-based bias.
The South Asian group has been sharply divided on this concern. Some teams akin to Hindus for Human Rights and Hindus for Caste Fairness say such a safeguard is important to guard weak group members from caste-based discrimination in housing training and the tech sector the place many maintain key roles. Advocates and different teams say caste discrimination is pervasive in a number of South Asian communities and the diaspora, throughout non secular traces.
Nevertheless, different organizations such because the Hindu American Basis and the Coalition of Hindus of North America oppose such insurance policies arguing that they'll particularly goal Hindus and Indian Individuals who're generally related to the caste system. These teams additionally preserve that there isn't any clear knowledge to point out that such discrimination exists, and that caste is roofed beneath “nationwide origin” making it pointless to carve out a separate protected class.
The Civil Rights Division voluntarily dismissing its case towards the 2 engineers is a vindication for activists who've held the place that “the state has no proper to attribute wrongdoing to Hindu and Indian Individuals merely due to their faith or ethnicity,” mentioned Suhag Shukla, government director of the Hindu American Basis.
“Two Indian Individuals endured an almost three-year nightmare of endless investigations, a brutal on-line witch hunt and a presumption of guilt within the media,” she mentioned.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and government director of Equality Labs, a Dalit-led advocacy group, mentioned final week’s motion “doesn't change something” together with the truth that the Cisco case “has given so many Dalits the braveness to come back ahead with their tales about caste discrimination in training, the medical and tech industries.”
“This isn't a loss, however progress,” she mentioned. “The Dalit group owes (the engineer) and the Civil Rights Division gratitude for having the braveness to convey such a historic case ahead.”
A mediation convention between Cisco and the California Civil Rights Division has been set for Might 2.
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