Click to play videoChengara (Kerala): Hundreds of landless Dalits have taken possession of 7000 acres of land in Kerala.
And standing between them and the government are about 500 children who lost their school to the land battle.
The Dalits who are marginalised are fighting for possession of land.
Children make up the first line of the revolting mass saying that they will not leave the place before they get the land.
They say they want to go to school but wants the government to ensure them that they are given the land.
About a year ago, more than 2000 landless families from across the state forcibly occupied the 7000 acres of land which once belonged to a company called Harrison Malayalam limited.
When the Kerala High court called for their eviction, they threatened to commit suicide.
Meawhile the company's labourers clamped an embargo, not allowing anyone to come in or go out. There ended the schooling of more than 500 children.
Secretary SVSV, Saleena Vijayan says, “After August last year, not a single child from here has gone to the school. Though many of them are enrolled here we cannot send them to school because the company's labourers have openly said they would burn them alive.”
Social activists justify the protesters using the children as the first line of defence.
Social Activist C R Neelakandan says, “You can’t just blame the Dalits alone. For them there is a bigger struggle at stake.”
The Chengara land struggle is not the first in the country and perhaps will not be the last one too.
Unlike Nandigram and Singur, here the future of an entire new generation is at stake.
(With inputs from Praveen PS)
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