Interview with Chhavi Rajawat Mayor of Soda, India

LSR Graduate to Village Sarpanch

Chhavi Rajawat is as much at home on horseback as she is under the hot sun, checking out the work at a NREGA site in her village from where she was recently elected sarpanch. Chhavi decided to quit the corporate world to go back to her roots.

 

Chhavi Rajawat (born 1980) is an Indian politician. She is the sarpanch of her village Soda, 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Jaipur.

Sarpanch Chhavi Rajawat, MBA

How many of us know of people who have completed their higher studies, worked in corporate sector, and quit their job to engage in social service? It is a minuscule segment of our educated population, and one that is gradually on the rise. 

 
Elected Representatives of Gram Panchayat Soda

Chhavi Rajawat, studied at Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh; Mayo College Girls’ School in Rajasthan and Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi. After her MBA from Pune, she worked  for companies such as Times of India, Carlson Group of Hotels, Airtel, etc.  Today, she is the Sarpanch (elected head of the Village Council) in Soda village, Tonk district, Rajasthan. She may be the first woman Sarpanch in India with an MBA degree, but a career in politics is not on her radar.

India's youngest sarpanch, MBA Chavvi Rajawat makes her village Soda India's 1st IT-enabled one

When Chavvi Rajawat tried to bring water to her parched village, she hit the bureaucratic wall of inefficiency.

 The young, jeans-clad sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan was told that she had already spent more than the funds allocated to her, and that the fresh water reservoir she wanted to construct was now out of the question.