So, what do you do when you hear about cast
discrimination in USA? Nothing. Keep moving on with your life. If you are an American, you have no business thinking on this
topic except to have pity on the people of the third world countries such as India, who give you a gossip topic.
What if the coin is flipped?
You are an Indian now, and you get to hear the same story. No big deal. Americans have to deal with it. As an Indian living in India, if we become defensive, why do we have to hear about casteims outside India? What it means is that Article 14/15 of the Indian constitution needs to be modified and Civil
Rights Law of USA needs to accommodate
caste discrimination. Indian constitution has many provisions that have not been implemented in its true spirits.
How many such reported incidences do we have in USA? No average citizen would know it for sure, unless, he/she has come across such incidences either by chance or purposefully.
What about the unreported incidences in USA? No one needs to bother about it, it seems.
So, here is a nice little story for you.
Jacob - an American resident of Indian origin has a happy life in USA, when everything turns upside down on him. He meets another American resident of Indian origin Kirk, who blames him of inflicting social atrocity to a young woman of Indian origin on the grounds of caste. Since Jacob is not aware of any such truth in his life, he doesn''t know how to react. But over a period of seven years Jacob gets many incidences which he considers as circumstantial evidences. So Jacob gets discriminated and alienated by a network of Indians living in USA and by Indian government when he comes to India. But guess what, Jacob''s employer can get additional information about Jacob from Kirk and use the Indian
casteism to flourish inside their work environment. As a result, Jacob''s personal and professional life gets mixed. After all, Kirk also works for the same employer.
Now here is the problem, Jacob belongs to forward caste in India but the Indian law is heavily loaded against people of forward caste. But what India government did not know is that they have allowed it to happen in India by virtue of their existing law. As a result, the evils of casteism have crossed their borders. The poison has been thrown into many countries. Those countries might just be as oblivious as Jacob was to the bare realities of life. So poor Jacob had no rights in USA because there was no law against caste discrimination and had no rights in India because the Indian law’s implementation could be based on assumptions/presumptions.
So here are some remedies that may be applicable to many countries of the world:
01. India government has to make the discovery of facts process
mandatory and a written copy of discovery of facts has to be handed over to accused/complainant except in some rare cases where after a written permission from Supreme Court of India the courts/police/organizations can pass on the limited/entire discovery of facts to the parties involved in a lawsuit. Under no situation the parties involved in the lawsuit can be refrained from getting facts discovered against them or in their favor.
02. If a lawsuit has been filed or a complaint has been made against an accused the principle of "not guilty until proven'' should hold true for cases including dowry deaths, rape, criminal conspiracy, national security etc.
03. India government has to make a mandatory training session on caste discrimination to anybody and everybody leaving their borders that are of Indian origin or have lived in India long enough to understand the topic.
04. A reminder booklet has to be given to anybody and everybody coming to and going from India.
05. An organization dealing with caste discrimination awareness is needed sooner than later in India.
06. USA should include caste as part of the Article VII of Civil Rights Laewhere.
07. The booklets and pamphlets available in DFEH and EEOC available in EEOC should be passed on to every organization in USA at a nominal cost. Every employee should be given the same booklet
and should be made to read and sign.
08. There should be a mandatory quarterly training session on the topic of discrimination in every organization even if it is in the form of digital/analog audio/video mechanism.
09. There should be a mandatory free mail every quarter about the topic of discrimination law inside every household in USA.
10. Every person going to SSN office or immigration office directly or indirectly has to get a mandatory copy of discrimination law booklet for a nominal fee. In other words even temporary workers or visitors have to know about the way they are supposed to conduct themselves.
11. If the government feels that the fee should be waived for the discrimination law booklet they can do it at their discretion provided the fiscal policy and fiscal budget allows it.
12. DFEH, EEOC, Immigration Department, SSN office and a new organization setup to co-ordinate the distribution of booklets should work in tandem to avoid duplication of efforts. This will result in cost reduction. Having said that, every eligible person should get a copy of the discrimination law every 3 years.
More abstracts about the India Vs USA: Hyprocisy personified