Nothing changed for Phanus Punji despite Rajiv Gandhi's promise

"Everyone knows my mother-in-law here. And, she keeps knocking on doors of officials. She tells them to please get us a house. But they ignore and often jeer at her," the daughter-in-law adds.

Recently, she got a job at the anganwadi centre, but doesn't get paid regularly. Phanus has two daughters and a son. Her son, Jagabandhu, is a daily wage labourer.

In 2008, she thought she would get an opportunity to meet Rahul, he was launching his "Discover India" yatra from Khariar.

She couldn't. She had hoped to tell him how his father had promised to help. But she couldn't get anywhere close to him, let alone speak. That day, she had narrated to a TV channel how Rajiv and Sonia had called on her in 1984. They came when she was eating lunch.

"They took the food — kanki (coarse rice) and saga (a form of weed) — with them. Rajiv promised to help me and asked officials to take care of me," Phanus said.

In 2002 her ailing husband died. His health was failing and Phanus was too poor to get him medical treatment.

Phanus' plight is not an isolated story at Amlapali where 1,200 people live in abject poverty.

The village recently got a pucca road, the only visible sign of progress in all these years. Malnourished children play on the narrow lanes.

Very few families have access to toilets.