LAND RIGHTS"CHENGARA" Struggle in KERALA

Chengara speaks to India through the Chengara Pledge (given below),
which thousands of people, in struggle for the last 120 days in Chengara
Harrison Malayalam Estate, (also called as Laha Estate) seeking
ownership of cultivable land to all 5,000 struggling families. Land
struggle in Chengara, Pathnamtitta district, Kerala by landless Dalits
and Adviasis (as well as scores of families from OBC communities,
Muslims etc) from all parts of Kerala, started on 4 August 2007. The
movement is a fight to re-claim ownership of land that has been part of
a long standing promise of the Government. At present nearly 5000
families, more than 20,000 people, have entered the Harrison Malayalam
Private Ltd Estate, living in makeshift arrangements. The Chengara Land
struggle demands permanent ownership of agricultural land through
transfer of ownership from the Harrison Company to the Dalits and
Adivasis. The Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV), the collective
that leads the struggle, has opted for the land take-over as strategy
remembering the tradition of the great leader Ayyankali, the militant
dalit leader whose mission was to ensure liberation of dalits from
various forms of slavery, right to agricultural land, as well as right to
education in Kerala.
The movement salutes Ayyankali and Ambedkar whose role in rights
movements in Kerala is disproportionately highlighted in the modern
social literature on Kerala. Raising the names of Ayyankali and Ambedkar as
sources of inspiration is a political challenge to the mainstream political
left parties. There is a widespread popular belief in Kerala that the
official left were the sole forces which ensured rights to Dalits, including
land rights. Such misrepresentations are now globalised through some
academic works as well.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• LAND
• RIGHTSCHENGARA
• Struggle
• in
• KERALA