​Prof. Hari Bapuji collected the following resources, which were originally published on his website https://www.haribapuji.org/caste-in-australia.html. Dr. Hari Bapuji is a Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

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Caste is increasingly recognized as an issue requiring attention in Australia. This page provides relevant material for those seeking to understand this issue and explore potential measures to address it. The compilation of this material here is solely for academic and educational purposes and does not constitute an endorsement of the content or a guarantee of its accuracy.
   
Recognition of Caste in Policy Frameworks and Policies

• Diversity Council Australia (DCA)’s Class Inclusion at Work (2025) recognised that caste “discrimination occurs in Australian workplaces” and hoped “that further guidance becomes available to support D&I practitioners in the future”.
• National Anti-Racism Framework (2024) recommended that the “Australian Government investigate options for legal protections against caste discrimination, including potential reform of existing legislation” (p.17).
• Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA)’s 2024 report “An Anti-Racism Framework: Experiences and Perspectives of Multicultural Australia” (commissioned by Australian Human Rights Commission) discussed caste-based discrimination and noted:
  • “Participants reported worst of caste identity-based discrimination in form of physical assault, being treated as untouchables (especially children), and socioeconomic boycott on business and persons. The results also pointed towards presence of overt and covert forms of prejudice and discrimination based on the caste identity in education, employment, marriage, intersectional discrimination based on gender and religion (and of course caste) and exclusionary practices that make caste as the central consideration of socio-cultural and socio-economic life in Australia within the Indian diaspora community. The impact of such pervasive discrimination was negative, and it significantly affected the well-being, mental, and psychological, of the caste oppressed persons.”
• Australian Government notes: “It’s illegal to discriminate against staff and job seekers because of … social origin (class, caste or socio-occupational category)”
• Fair Work Commission notes that “an employer is prohibited from taking adverse action against an employee or prospective employee because of a number of listed attributes”, including social origin, whose definition includes caste.
• City of Monash passed a resolution to “Direct Officers to include ‘caste’ as a protected characteristic in a similar manner to race, religion, etc in relevant Council policies and plans as they come due for review, including Council’s Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan” and seek the perspective of the Multicultural Advisory Committee on the issue of caste as it relates to Council business.
•  City of Melbourne included caste as part of its Inclusive Melbourne Action Plan 2024–26.
• Greens include Caste Discrimination in their Anti Racism Policy. 2023. Link.

Media Stories

• SBS. 2025. This form of discrimination is growing in Australia – from assault to segregated birthday parties. Link.
• Rationalist Society of Australia. 2025. NSW education department investigating caste-based discrimination in SRE classes. Link.
• ABC News. 2024. Group attempting to stop ‘offensive’ burning of Ravana effigies at Deepavali celebrations around country. Link.
• The Guardian. 2024. ‘Beyond Bollywood and butter chicken’: rethinking Australia’s deeply misunderstood Indian diaspora. Link.
• SBS. 2023. ‘Untouchables’ amongst us. Link.
• South China Morning Post. 2023. Caste discrimination is legal in Australia, home to more than 1 million South Asians. Some deny it even exists. Link.
• The Guardian. 2023. ‘A disease’: Caste discrimination in Australia is on the rise – but some are fighting back. Link.
• Sydney Morning Herald. 2022. Educated, ambitious, ever more powerful: How Indian migration is changing the nation. Link.
• NRI Affairs. 2022. Webinar on caste discrimination in Australia attacked. Link.
• ABC Radio National. 2021. Australia’s caste divide. Link.
• ABC News. 2021. They’ve left South Asia, but they can’t escape the discrimination and division of its caste system. Link.
• South China Morning Post. 2021. South Asian migrants face caste discrimination even in Australia, US, UK, New Zealand. Link.
• SBS. 2018. Australia passes a motion to support so-called ‘low caste’ Indians. Link.
• SBS. Caste Acts. Link.
• SBS. 2017. ‘No Beef’- Threatening emails asking not to recruit non-Brahmins target Indians. Link.
• SBS. 2015. Australians subject to ‘caste discrimination’, migrants say. Link.

Reports by Advocacy Groups

• Sri Guru Ravidas Sabha & Ambedkar International Mission. 2024. Caste in Australia: A Phenomenology of Casteism. Link.
• Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle Australia. 2024. Addressing Hinduphobia: Uplifting the Voices of Caste-Oppressed Hindus for an Inclusive Australia. Link.
• Coalition Against Caste Discrimination. 2023. Unseen Chains: Urgent Plea for Recognising Caste Discrimination in the Anti-Discrimination Act Review. Link.

Research Papers

• Ramachandran, V. (2020). But he’s not desi: Articulating ‘Indianness’ through partnership preference in the Indian-Australian diaspora. South Asian Diaspora, 12(1), 1-17.
• Pariyar, M. (2019) Travelling castes: Nepalese immigrants in Australia, South Asian Diaspora, 11:1, 89-103.
• Sarwal, A. (2018). Class and caste consciousness: the narratives of Indian sub-continental diaspora in Australia. Oxford University Press.
• Lightfoot, L. (2015). Labels and locations: Gender, family, class and Caste–The short narratives of South Asian diaspora in Australia. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.