Australian National Anti-racism Framework recognises Caste-based discrimination

The Faculty of Law is delighted to announce that DPhil Law candidate Asang Wankhede’s report, Caste in Australia: A Phenomenology of Casteism, has led to formal recognition of Caste-based discrimination (CBD) as a form of intersectional racial discrimination by the Australian Human Rights Commission as part of its National Anti-Racism Framework.

Wankhede’s groundbreaking study, funded by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA), gathered extensive evidence on emerging forms of discrimination in multicultural societies within Australia’s South Asian diaspora. Through interviews with 146 participants from caste-oppressed communities, the project documented 600 pages of evidence, presenting compelling grounds for this legislative reform.

Wankhede's research reveals that caste oppression extends beyond interpersonal conflicts, manifesting as a complex and pervasive form of intersectional racial discrimination in educational institutions, workplaces, and social settings. The study uncovered distressing instances of discrimination, including physical assault, treatment of children as 'untouchables', and socioeconomic boycotts targeting businesses owned by individuals from historically oppressed castes. Participants reported significant impacts on their psychological well-being, both in the short-term and long-term.

According to the framework: ‘There is strong support for national, comprehensive, and effective anti-discrimination laws underpinned by the principles of participation and equal access to justice. Broader anti-discrimination protections could also be embedded across institutions to enhance rights in the areas of accessing housing, education, and culture, as well as improve protections against faith and caste-based discrimination.’

The framework recommended to “investigate options for legal protections against caste discrimination, including potential reform of existing legislation”. This recommendation to explore options to prohibit CBD in Australian Federal law is a move that Wankhede hopes to see replicated in other countries with major South-Asian diaspora communities; and a first step towards a larger goal to amend the Federal Racial Discrimination Act, of 1975, to include caste discrimination as a ground for discrimination.

‘As I see it, this report lays the foundation for the anti-caste activism globally by developing a methodological framework rooted in collecting, analysing and undertaking advocacy based on the lived experiences of #Dalits in 'foreign' lands. [Using] those phenomenological insights to undertake advocacy with evidence of CBD.’

‘The greatest joy of a researcher's life is to see his and his team's work drive significant policy changes in a short time, transforming insights into impactful action.’

Caste in Australia: A Phenomenology of Casteism is now available open access.

Wankhede concludes ‘this report is dedicated to our voices of Dalits across the world, who find their everyday lived experience of that of discrimination, prejudice and humiliation. To our voices who have remained resilient in the face of racial discrimination or casteism, empowering the fight against everyday CBD.’