The resolution was moved last month by Kshama Sawant, an Indian-American politician, economist and an upper-caste Hindu.

It was approved unanimously by the Seattle City Council by six to one vote. Seattle is not only the first American city to ban caste discrimination but is the first jurisdiction at any level globally outside South Asia to do so. 

 The world's first ban against caste discrimination outside South Asia goes into effect TODAY in our city of Seattle! Sawant said on Monday. 

 Seattle's law now prohibits businesses from discriminating based on caste with respect to hiring, tenure, promotion, workplace conditions, or wages, Sawant said. It will ban discrimination based on caste in places of public accommodation, such as hotels, public transportation, public restrooms, or retail establishments, she said, adding that the law also prohibits housing discrimination based on caste in rental housing leases, property sales, and mortgage loans. 

 Describing it as the biggest breakthrough for the global fight against caste oppression in many decades, Sawant said it has opened the floodgates for potentially winning such a ban on caste discrimination in other cities and states in the US as well. 

 It's not surprising that since we won in Seattle, policies against caste discrimination have been proposed in Toronto and California, she noted. Sawant said further victories are not guaranteed unless activists and working people adopt the kind of fighting strategy they used to win in Seattle.

 In fact, it is not coincidental that this unprecedented step forward occurred in this city. We won precisely because Socialist Alternative and I use our Council office as a vehicle to build united movements of working people, independent of the establishment that represents big business and the status quo, Sawant explained. Sawant, who migrated to the US from Pune in the late 1990s, said the next step would be to enforce this new law in the city.