Koraput: "We are paid Rs 70 as daily wage. We know we are supposed to get fixed legal wage of Rs 90 a day under the MGNREGA. But we are poor people and refrain from getting into a conflict with the authorities," said Debaki Dalpati of Harlanga village under Madanpur-Rampur block of Kalahandi district.

"Though we eke out a living, working as daily labourers, we have never worked under MGNREGA before. We don't know the procedures as to how we should demand work and our wages under MGNREGA. Neither the officials nor the elected panchayat members have told us about this job guarantee scheme," Sapurdie Patra of Khaliamunda village of the district said.

"I have not been issued land patta under the Forest Rights Act, though my family has been living on forest land for the past three generations," said Janaki Patra, a tribal woman who lives in forest area of Nuamunda village under Madanpur-Rampur block.

Debaki, Sapurdie and Janaki are not the only women to complain against the much-hyped MGNREGA and Forest Rights Act (FRA) in this rural belt. Hundreds of tribal women across the district shared an almost similar experience and rued of becoming victims of poor implementation of FRA and MGNREGA in Madanpur-Rampur and Lanjigarh blocks of Kalahandi district. They were here to attend a three-day Legal Empowerment training camps organized by Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a Dehradun based voluntary organization working towards legally empowering women from amongst marginalized communities in the state of Orissa.

"Though the government launches various welfare schemes for the economic uplift of the rural folk, most schemes remain confined to paper. Here, we don't know anything about even the most popular schemes like MGNREGA and FRA, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities," said one of the woman labourers during an interactive session.

According to a survey carried out in 1997, at least 62 per cent of the population comes under the BPL category in the tribal-dominated district of Kalahandi. Women of the forest dwelling folk and people belonging to scheduled castes and tribes find themselves at the bottom of the social development pyramid. So accessing justice and claiming their legal entitlements is a far cry for them.

"Delay in allocation of land pattas to forest dwellers and ignorance and exploitation of rural masses has emerged as one of the cardinal issues of immediate concern. This needs to be addressed more affirmatively and with utmost transparency," said Nachiketta Mittal, project co-ordinator of RLEK.

The organization, during its visit to various villages in the district, make the marginalized communities aware through legal training on various social welfare laws and schemes like FRA, protection of women from domestic violence act, right t information act, MGNREGA and laws relating to marriage, divorce and maintenance.