The Equality Act 2010 currently contains 9 protected characteristics. These include race, marriage and religion. There has however been one characteristic which the UK Government indicated would be expressly included as an aspect of race since 2015.
Caste.
Caste is a hereditary way of classing an individual’s status based on factors such as their rank, wealth and occupation. A tribunal recently found that ethnic origins within the protected characteristic of race could include questions surrounding their descent and therefore caste.
A consultation was announced in September 2016. Perhaps 2017 may be the year caste is written into the Equality Act.
If not, perhaps I will write the same article this time next year!
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