2026 Essays

Kerala’s Climate Plan Speaks the Language of Justice — But Erases Caste

Sathuluri, David

Kerala's State Action Plan on Climate Change (2023–2030) employs the language of climate justice while structurally erasing caste as a driver of vulnerability. In this article I argues that Dalit and Adivasi communities — historically dispossessed and resettled on hazard-prone land — face compounded climate risks that the plan refuses to name. Using the 2024 Wayanad landslides as a case study, the author shows how this omission plays out in practice: tribal families were excluded from resettlement lists and ultimately segregated from the main township project. The Kerala government framed its response as climate-resilient rebuilding, obscuring the caste-based inequities embedded in disaster recovery. The article contends that invoking neutral, universalist language is itself a political act — one that determines whose suffering is counted and whose is not. As India seeks international standing as a climate justice leader, the piece calls for state climate plans that explicitly name caste as a structural determinant of vulnerability.

Keywords: Climate Justice, India, Caste, Kerala, Policy, State Action Plans, Policy