Rahul Gandhi interacted with tribal workers at Mandla, Madhya Pradesh on March 22, 2014.

For hundreds of adivasi tendu leaf pickers subsisting at the periphery of the economy it was an opportunity to not only express their anguish against an unfair system, but also engage with a national political leader willing to listen and address their problems. Just before starting his conversation, Rahul Gandhi walked into the nearby forest to see how the women collected the tendu leaves in harsh conditions. The tribal women told Rahul Gandhi how they were paid a pittance for the leaves which took long hours to collect. They also shared with him the lack of other employment opportunities in their villages, which have no roads or electricity. Suhasini Maharani, a leaf picker, pointed out that while victims of car accidents received as much as three lakh rupees from insurance, the death of somebody in a leaf picker's family fetched them a paltry 3,000 rupees. 'We educate our children, but what's the point since there are no jobs,' she said, adding that people in villages did not even get the promised 100 days of work under the central MNREGA scheme..