New York: After Seattle, Fresno in California has become the second US city to ban caste discrimination. The proposal to this effect was unanimously passed by the City Council 7-0. “I am proud of our city for once again raising the bar on civil rights protections,” Fresno City Council Vice President Annalisa Perea said in a press release this week. “While we recognize that discrimination will not end overnight, our city has taken bold action by passing this anti-discrimination policy to strengthen civil rights protections against racial discrimination.”
The push for the ban was led by Fresno’s Sikh residents, later joined by people of Oaxacan descent, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported, adding that the two communities have worked together for years. Thousands of Sikhs and Oaxacans, many of whom are farmers or farm workers, live in Fresno County and the Central Valley, the report said. Saying that caste is an urgent civil rights issue affecting the international community, Dalit civil rights group Equality Labs welcomed the move, saying that “the implementation of this new ordinance represents a stunning display of South Asian and indigenous solidarity.” Is”. “It is an honor and a dream to bring freedom to so many people in Fresno with this historic victory,” said Amar Darroch, a Fresno resident and president of the local Sikh temple, Sri Guru Ravidas Sabha. “There are many of us who are survivors of the global caste system,” Darroch said in a press release. Equity Labs executive director Thenmozhi Soundararajan and several caste leaders have been on a hunger strike for three weeks to pressure Newsom into signing Senate Bill 403 before the October 14 deadline.
