CSU has already enacted a ban on caste discrimination as has UC-Davis. The Council of UC Faculty Associations called on UC to adopt such a ban in March: https://cucfa.org/2023/03/call-for-including-caste-in-anti-discrimination-policy/.
From the bill:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) “Caste” refers to an individual’s perceived position in a system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status. A system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status may be characterized by factors that may include, but are not limited to, inability or restricted ability to alter inherited status; socially enforced restrictions on marriage, private and public segregation, and discrimination; and social exclusion on the basis of perceived status.
(b) Caste discrimination is present across South Asia and the South Asian diaspora and is found in all diaspora, as well as around the world. While caste systems are strongly associated with South Asia, similar systems exist in regions including, but not limited to, South America, Asia, and Africa. Caste discrimination is also found across communities of religious practice...
Full text of bill at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB403.
It might be noted that the state currently has a ban on religious and other forms of discrimination. The bill states (Section 1[g]) that adding caste explicitly does not indicate that caste discrimination is not already illegal under that ban:
This act shall not be construed to mean that caste discrimination is not already prohibited under existing law, including by protections for religion, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, race, color, or any other protected characteristic under existing law.
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*The article is at https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/casteless-utopia-california-religious-group-18124209.php.
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