As part of a series of international conferences supported by the British Humanist Association last summer, IHEU (the International Humanist and Ethical Union) held an international conference on Untouchability, at which Lord Averbury announced plans for research into whether the problem of caste discrimination exists in Britain. The plans are now coming to fruition.

Discrimination on the grounds of caste – or historic social standing in Hindu and Sikh communities – may be happening in the UK, a government peer has said.

Ministers have previously said they did not think people from lower castes were treated unfairly in the workplace.

But Baroness Thornton said evidence may exist. … ”We have looked for evidence of caste discrimination and we now think that evidence may exist, which is why we have now commissioned the research,” she said.

“The proportionate thing is to take the power to deal with that discrimination if and when that evidence is produced.”

Lord Avebury, for the Liberal Democrats, who moved the amendment, said he believed the research would “conclusively prove that caste discrimination does occur in the fields covered by the [Equality] bill”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8546661.stm