When R Murali and his wife volunteered for a non-profit in Fremont, California, they were asked to assign children who had signed up for a cultural programme to groups on the basis of their interests. Then one day, they got a call from a group in charge. Could children from a specific caste be assigned to the group? It would be “easy to coordinate with parents”, the person said.
Murali and his wife did not entertain the request.
While the case against network systems giant Cisco — which is being sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for workplace discrimination after a Dalit engineer alleged harassment by two employees who belong to dominant castes — remains pending, testimonies like Murali’s are being put together by the California-based Ambedkar King Study Circle in an attempt to speak up about the prevalance of caste privilege in the US.
Last week, the Ambedkar King Study Circle launched a signature campaign asking US companies to include “caste” as a basis of discrimination in their policies. “So far, there have been 464 signatures. We aim for 1,000 within another week, after which it will be sent to the HR representatives of various companies,” S Karthikeyan, executive council member of the group, told TOI.
The te