2025 Essays

A blueprint for caste-conscious climate policy: Why the Supreme Court’s report on judicial conceptions of caste matters now

Sathuluri, David

The article argues that India’s new Supreme Court Report on Judicial Conceptions of Caste offers an institutional blueprint for embedding caste-conscious analysis into climate policy and governance. Using examples such as extreme heat impacts on Dalit workers, gaps in labour protections, and caste-erasing language like “informal workers” or “vulnerable groups,” it shows how current climate frameworks violate the Court’s own doctrine of substantive equality by treating unequals as equals. The author calls for extending the Supreme Court Centre’s methodology to heat action plans, climate jurisprudence, and climate data governance—integrating caste-disaggregated data and community-led Dalit and Adivasi initiatives—so that climate governance can meaningfully address structural caste hierarchies rather than reproduce them.