Caste Discrimination in Employment and Enhancing Protections Available under the Equality Act

The UK government has the evidence of minorities of South Asian origin who suffer from victimisation in employment based on caste. The intra racial prejudices within the Asian community have been exposed in recent years by the 'outcastes' or the 'untouchab les'(Dalits), who have suffered employment discrimination because their rights have been abused. The evidence that caste hatred in based on socio economic variables in employment can be found in the cases that have come before the courts and there have been findings that there has been victimisation against those who belong to the lowest castes. There is a need to evaluate the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and the power available under section 69 of the Enterprise Regulatory and Reform Act 2013 to raise caste as a basis for discrimination in the courts. The obstacles in the enforcement of the Equality Act are in the positive duty which is difficult to implement for the employer in recruiting staff and causes difficulties of interpretation. This paper argues that the scope of legislation should be extended to take into consideration ICERD definition of racial discrimination and a wider ambit of protection should be available tin employment contracts in which caste is included to provide a remedy when discrimination is in industry.