MBA graduate returns to roots as sarpanch

MBA graduate returns to roots as 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 this is how she is paying back to the village she grew up in.

A student of Rishi Valley,Bangalore and later at Delhis Lady Shriram College,Chhavi did a business management degree from Pune.Then she worked with about five corporates before changing her focus.

Today as Chhavi heads NREGA meetings in her village in 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.My management education is helping me take care of the village better.It is a sort of social work that runs in my blood, says Chhavi,who won the sarpanch seat on February 4.

Chhavi attributes her life-changing step to her grandfather Brig Raghubir Singh.Many years ago,as the sarpanch of Soda,Singh had made Chhavis mother drive through the village without her veil.Villagers had looked up in surprise as their car drove past but no one spoke a word.

Chhavi said she waded into politics,backed by the villagers.The villagers did not want the former sarpanch and though I was pitched against his wife and another womanthe seat was reserved for women this timeI won.The villagers see me as the daughter of the village and wanted me to contest, she says.

 

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