Indian sarpanch calls for boosting India''s pace of development

United Nations, Mar 26 (PTI) Chhavi Rajawat, a local representative from Rajasthan, has underlined the need to step up the pace of development in India if the people are to realise their dream for basic facilities.

"If India continues to make progress at the same pace as it has for the past 65 years since Independence, it just won''t be good enough. We''ll be failing people who dream about having water, electricity, toilets, schools and jobs," said Rajawat, the sarpanch of Soda village, 60-km from Jaipur.

"I am convinced we can do it differently and do it faster," she told delegates at the 11th Info-poverty world Conference at the UN.

Participating in a panel discussion at the two-day meet from March 24 on the role of civil society in combating poverty and promoting development, she underlined the need for new strategies, including the state-of-the-art technologies like e-services to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

30-year old Rajawat, who was elected sarpanch in Tonk district in Feb 2011, has identified provision of clean drinking water as her first priority for the local people.

She has drawn up plans to introduce alternate form of employment by introducing vocational training in curriculum.

Well-educated and with corporate experience, she said her new role as a representative of the people was not a career "but sort of social work".

Rajawat has caught the imagination of the local people even as she conducts village meetings dressed in jeans and T-shirt in a conservative state where women cover their face with a veil as part of tradition.

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