Rutgers declines to add caste as separate discrimination category
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Arun Kumar- 0
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Hindu civil rights groups welcome decision saying adding a separate category would unfairly target Hindu students and faculty
By Arun Kumar
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has declined to create a separate category prohibiting caste-based discrimination saying caste is already covered by its Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment.
One of America’s leading public research universities, Rutgers announced the decision Jan 13 after “careful review” of a task force report suggesting that “caste” should be added as a protected category under the university’s discrimination policy.
The university’s decision has been welcomed by Hindu grassroots advocacy and civil rights groups saying that adding a separate category would unfairly target Hindu students and faculty.
Rutgers said its Office of Employment Equity (OEE) is charged with supporting “the University’s commitment to preventing discrimination and advancing equal opportunity in employment. The Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment, enumerates race, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, and national origin as protected categories (among others),
“Rutgers has taken the position that caste can and does fall within some, or all, of those classes, depending on the factual circumstance.” the university stated. “Because caste is already covered by the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment, the university will not be taking steps to amend this policy at this time,”
Noting that the policy provides numerous avenues for someone who may be the victim of caste discrimination, the university asked the task force to encourage them to reach out to OEE’s Intake Support Specialist to guide them through the complaint process.
Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) welcomed Rutgers’ decision stating “in addition to being unnecessary, the inclusion of loaded words like caste would actually lead to profiling and discrimination against students and faculty of Hindu and Indian origin, since caste is not a neutral word and instead is primarily associated with these communities.”
“I am glad that the Rutgers University Labor Relations office recognized that caste is already covered under their current policy and did not fall for the report by the task force, which singled out Hindu students and faculty,” said Hitesh Trivedi, Associate Hindu Chaplain at Rutgers University.
“As a Rutgers alumnus and someone who has been active in the alumni community, I am pleased to see a decision grounded in reason and facts versus the emotions of a small privileged set of activists,” said Nikunj Trivedi, President of CoHNA.
“Now, we want to ensure that the DEI team is also sensitized on the ramifications of the topic as it considers adding questions on caste in its survey. We will continue to encourage our student team and other organizations at Rutgers to engage with the DEI Office to ensure that the questions are neutral and do not encourage biased answers or community stereotyping.”