B’lore-schooled MBA graduate heads home as village sarpanch

Jaipur: For most, it would be a step backward. But for 30-year-old Chhavi Rajawat, leaving behind corporate glamour and city life to head back to her village Soda, 60 km from Jaipur, as its sarpanch has been a journey to her roots. She says she’s paying her debt to the village she grew up in. 

    A student of Rishi Valley, Bangalore, and later at Delhi’s Lady Shriram College, Rajawat topped up her education with a business management degree from Pune. Then, she worked with about five corporates in various capacities before changing her focus. 

    Today, as Chhavi heads NREGA meetings in her village in denim jeans and casual wear, she is fast emerging as the changing face of rural Rajasthan. “It should change. There is so much one can do,’’ she says. “In fact, my education as a business management student is helping me take better care of the village. It’s a sort of social work that runs in my blood,’’ says the woman who won the sarpanch seat on Feb 4. 

    And it is a change that Chhavi attributes to her grandfather Brigadier Raghubir Singh. As sarpanch of Soda, he had made Chhavi’s mother drive through the village without her veil. Villagers looked surprised as the car entered but no one spoke a word. 

    Rajawat says she waded into politics, backed by the villagers. “There was an uprising against the present sarpanch. The villagers did not want him and though I was pitched against his wife and another lady, as the seat was this time reserved for women, I managed to win. The villagers see me as the daughter of the village,’’ she says. 

WHERE OTHERS FEAR TO TREAD 

Chhavi Rajawat, from a remote village off Jaipur, studies in Bangalore’s Rishi Valley School, Delhi’s Lady Shriram College and Pune’s management institute 

Works in 5 corporate companies. Suddenly, changes focus, is back at her dusty Rajasthan village 

An uprising against a sarpanch throws up an opportunity, which she uses to the hilt. Now, a sarpanch. Holds meetings in casual wear Chhavi’s bid to change mindsets 

Jaipur: From the climes of Rishi Valley, Bangalore, and Delhi’s Lady Shriram College, 30-year-old Chhavi Rajawat, 30, has travelled deep into Rajasthan boondocks to helm a panchayat as sarpanch. Isn’t the change too sudden? She says: “No. I am used to it. I grew up playing with kids of farmers. Besides, my parental house is in Soda, so I spend time there and don’t miss anything. I am pretty comfortable.’’ 

    Besides being sarpanch, she also tends to a hotel the family owns in Jaipur and the numerous horses part of her riding school. “It is passion,’’ she explains. She’s also trying to change mindsets. “Villagers have got used to not working and taking partial payment for NREGA. I have to change that. I go on surprise visits and give them a scolding or two if they are not working,’’ she says. 

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