Miss Keepu Fights for Lepcha community
Gangtok: While India is on the verge of a population explosion, ironically the Lepcha community of Sikkim is on its way to fading away. But 72-year-old Keepu Lepcha has been doing her best to fight this. She runs a home, the Lepcha cottage, which is perhaps the last stand of the Lepcha community. Keepu Tsering Lepcha is 'nikun' or grandmother to the children there. Almost 75 orphan and semi-orphan children of the Lepcha community stay at her home in Gangtok. With just about 45,000 Lepchas left, the community which dominated the population of Sikkim just a century back, is on the verge of extinction today."The Lepcha community is a dying race. Illiteracy and alcoholism are big problems. A lot of children have lost both their parents due to alcoholism. There are also children with both parents alive but they come from very poor and under priviledged families. Out of these children, 99 per cent are first generation learners," Keepu said. Keepu Lepcha was lucky enough to get good education. While working in the education department she saw the plight of fellow Lepchas from a very close quarter. "Being a Lepcha myself and having seen the poor condition in remote areas, I felt I should definitely do something for the survival of the community," Keepu said.
In 1988 she set up the Lepcha cottage with 22 children in a house she had inherited. All were supported from her own salary. Seventy-five children stay there now. The Rs 60,000 needed to run it every month come from Keepu's pension and donations. "I was never attracted to marriage or having my own children. I don't think I could have helped so many children if I had my own family," she said. It is the unbound love for the little ones that has transformed many a life there. Fursong Lepcha was just six years old when she came to the Lepcha cottage almost 20 years ago. Now a mother of two and a teacher, she owes it all to Keepu.
"My own mother who gave birth to me is in the village. But my real mother who gave me knowledge is Miss Keepu. I give this credit to Miss Keepu," Fursong said. Education is the biggest gift that Miss Keepu has given to her community. In 1995, Miss Keepu's dream of a free school was realized when some tourists from Europe offered to help her. She gave her own ancestral land for the school and the hostel, while the funds were raised by the tourists.Life at the Lepcha cottage is simple. There is fun and love all around. It's hard to make out that the Lepcha community is at a risk of extinction. And as of now, Miss Keepu has just one wish. "Whatever I tried to do should not die with me but it should continue. The children who have been brought up by so many people with lots of care and love, they should continue this thing so that more and more people benefit," she says.
(Source - IBN-CNN)
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