THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Tuesday, the Chengara land struggle enters its 20th year, making it one of the longest-running land rights movements in Kerala. Two decades after thousands of landless families occupied a private plantation, demanding a small piece of land to call their own, the protest has become a powerful reminder of the state’s unfinished land reform agenda.
The agitation began in January 2007 when the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV), led by the late Dalit leader Laha Gopalan, occupied plantation land owned by Harrison Malayalam Ltd at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district. Their demand was straightforward: cultivable land and a life of dignity for thousands of landless Dalit and Adivasi families, along with poor people from other communities.
To mark the milestone, social activists including C R Neelakantan, B Rajeevan and Mar Coorilos Geevarghese, the metropolitan of the Niranam Diocese of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, will gather at Chengara on Tuesday to express solidarity with the protesters.
The Chengara struggle has also come to symbolise the gap between Kerala’s celebrated legacy of land reforms, its claim of becoming the first state in the country to eradicate extreme poverty on November 1, 2025, and building houses for homeless families.
For many families, children have grown up knowing no home other than the protest site. An entire generation has spent its life waiting for the state to fulfil what they consider a basic right — ownership of a small, habitable piece of land. Today, around 3,500 people from nearly 600 families continue to live at the protest site, where they have remained for the past 19 years.
“Like my father, many of the first generation settlers have been cremated on this land,” said SJVSV joint secretary Suresh Kumar S.
“The coconut palms and jackfruit and mango trees they planted are now laden with fruit,” he added. Although families cultivate around 50 cents of land each, a safe and permanent home remains beyond their reach.
“There is still no electricity here. We continue to rely on kerosene lamps,” said SJVSV state president K S Gopi. “Ration cards were issued to us only in 2025 under the extreme poverty eradication programme, but they still do not carry house numbers.
The Malayalapuzha panchayat has not allotted house numbers because we have no title deeds. Without them, we cannot even approach banks for educational loans,” he pointed out.
Soon after the UDF government assumed office, SJVSV leaders met Chief Minister V D Satheesan.
“He assured us that he would initiate steps, possibly through his first budget. But nothing was announced. We also met Revenue Minister A P Anil Kumar and Transport Minister C P John, both of whom had supported our struggle from the beginning. A meeting has been convened at the Pathanamthitta collectorate on Tuesday to discuss the Chengara issue. We remain hopeful that the new government will finally resolve it,” Gopi said.
According to the SJVSV, nearly 25,000 landless families initially joined the occupation in 2007.
“Every family was enrolled as a member of the organisation,” Gopi said.
Attempts by the government to evict the protesters were eventually abandoned after many families threatened to take their own lives by hanging themselves from trees or setting themselves on fire.
Estate trade unions later organised a blockade, but hundreds of families continued to remain on the occupied land despite receiving little support from mainstream political parties.
Successive LDF and UDF governments have announced rehabilitation packages, but none has provided a lasting solution.
On October 5, 2009, the V S Achuthanandan government allotted land to 1,495 families.
However, many beneficiaries later returned to Chengara after finding the allotted land unsuitable for either habitation or cultivation.
During the tenure of the Oommen Chandy government, another rehabilitation package was announced but never moved beyond the proposal stage. In 2025, the then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also convened a meeting to expedite rehabilitation, but little changed.
Two decades after the first tents came up inside the estate, the promise of land, dignity and justice remains unfulfilled.
No solution
Today, around 3,500 people from nearly 600 families continue to live at the protest site, where they have remained for the past 19 years
Successive LDF and UDF governments have announced rehabilitation packages, but none has provided a lasting solution