Kalimpong, March 4: Days after the Sikkim government accorded the Lepchas in the state primitive tribe status, members of the community in Kalimpong have raised the demand for the same.

General secretary of the Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association (ILTA) L.S. Tamsang said: ?We have been demanding that the Lepchas from the state of West Bengal be included in the Primitive Tribe group since the early fifties, but our pleas have gone unheard. The government had made the recommendation in 2000, but nothing came of it either.?

The government, Tamsang felt, should help the community because ?the Lepchas in Bengal are worse off than their counterparts in Sikkim. The Lepcha tribe of Darjeeling district are economically and educationally very backward and the population is also very less?.

Most Lepchas in the hills are farmers who have been growing crops in the traditional way, the ILTA general secretary claimed.

?Most are illiterate and live in places where there is no electricity or roads,? he said.

?According to the 1991 census, the population of the Lepchas in Bengal was 27,888. No census has been conducted since and it is hard to estimate how many from the community actually live in the state,? he added.

Another member of the association said the government?s apathy had led to the Lepchas losing their cultural identity.

?We are doing everything we can as an association to preserve our culture and heritage. But we need the help of the government. And the only way the state can help us is by recognising us as a primitive tribe,? he said.

?The Lepcha association has sent a letter, making the demand to all people concerned, regarding the inclusion of Lepcha under the Primitive Tribal group,? he added.