In Rajasthan, Chhavi Rajawat is known as the MBA sarpanch. In Soda, a village three hours away from Jaipur, where she is sarpanch, she is called sarpanch beti. The corporate world knows her as someone who bid good-bye to a high-paying job and promising career in 2010 to become a sarpanch. Those who see her for the first time, think she is a model, with her regal gait and mesmerising looks.

PaGaLGuY met up Chhavi Rajawat (30) in Jaipur to know who she really is. The first meeting was at a huge colonial-styled bungalow – earlier her ancestral home and now a thriving hotel. The hotel spoke of her as a person a large green canopy at the entrance and the portico packed with flowery plants. The insides of the bungalow were painted in warm yellow and the walls plastered with sepia-tinged pictures of her family. All along the lobby and the cafeteria were Chinese and pencil paintings made by her and her mother.

“This is my family home and will always remain one. We have converted it into a hotel but we still run it like a home,” the pretty sarpanch said. Besides the hotel, Chhavi also runs a horse riding academy in Jaipur. The hotel and the academy keep Chhavi and the dreams of Soda going. “I get Rs 3,000 as salary as a sarpanch which covers nothing. I am blessed that my family can look after me. I wonder what other sarpanch do.”

When the call to become a sarpanch came Chhavi’s way, in 2010, she was well engrossed in her corporate career. After having schooled in Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, later Mayo, and college from Lady Shri Ram in Delhi, she did her MBA from Indian Institute of Materials Management in Pune.

Watch Chhavi on You Tube on why she did an MBA?

Post MBA, Chhavi got placed in a marketing profile in a publication house in Delhi. From there she switched to working in a hotel chain and thereafter with a mobile service provider in Jaipur. She made good money and was rising high and fast in her career. “I loved the corporate scene. But the sarpanch offer made me re-think. I was not convinced at first but the elders of Soda came many times to meet my parents in Jaipur and explain why they thought I could do a good job. “

Chhavi gave in eventually.

Chhavi poses with the other villagers in front of the Gram Panchayat office (pic from Chhavi’s FB account)

There were 12 other women contenders (the seat was reserved for a woman in 2010), ten of whom backed out when Chhavi entered the fray. Two contested and Chhavi won hands down. However on the first day of office, none of the women turned up. Their husbands came instead and told Chhavi that it was going to be like this anyway, even if any of their wives had won. That’s when I realised I had quite a task ahead, possibly more difficult than the corporate world, she said.

Chhavi’s battles only grew each day – from water issues to reforestation, health services, education, alternate job opportunities, electricity, and construction of proper roads. “It was like everything had to be done,” said Chhavi recalling her first month as a sarpanch. To add insult to injury was the fact that the government had declared Soda as one of the most backward districts in Rajasthan. With a population of over 10,000 people, the average literacy rate was a mere 53%. Soda is just over 65-70 kms from Jaipur, but the roads are so bad that it takes almost three hours one way.

The drainage problems that stared back at Chhavi when she took up the job.

Chhavi started work with much enthusiasm but more than the work, she found that her bigger enemies were the bureaucratic hurdles she had to encounter at every point. For the smallest to the biggest of jobs, she has to seek approvals from various authorities, who were not one bit yielding. “Contrary to what I had thought, a sarpanch has no real powers,”Chhavi said.

Hear what Chhavi has to say about missing corporate life and perks?

Within a week of taking over, Chhavi began her tryst with different authorities, some at the state level, and others at the Centre. The sarpanch read up any and every official paper that concerned Soda, some of which were in pieces and had turned ochre. She took help from her friends in the legal fraternity to have an informed opinion on issues. Over time, while she gained support and love from the villagers in Soda, she earned enemies from the people in power. More than often, she found herself battling it out in courts or waiting four hours outside offices of authorities. Once Chhavi even asked for police protection since one of the cases she was handling was sensitive, but even that was denied.

One of the many ponds built by Chhavi Rajawat in Soda to help solve the water problem. (Pics from Soda website)

But in the last two years, Chhavi did manage to fulfil some of her wish list for Soda. From an ugly, parched village, it today sports large pockets of water. Water conservation, forestation efforts, pucca roads and houses, drainage facilities, schools, creches, temples Soda has it all today. There is even masala manufacturing unit started, the products of which are soon going to hit retail stores in and around Jaipur. Laxmi S, one of the ladies working in the unit said that the masalas are devoid of any preservatives. “They are fresh and no milavat since we make them on a daily basis. To know more about her achievements, log on to her website.

L Govardhan, one of the older inhabitants of the village told PaGaLGuY that their sarpanch beti has done much more than what they had in mind. “We had primary issues like water and drainage but she gave us schools and a computer centre. She also gave us anganwadis and taught our women how to earn money for themselves.”

Chhavi says it is important to empower people with education. “Whether it is the men, women or children of the village, if they are educated, they will learn to fight for what is right and if they know to read and write, little chance of them being taken for a ride.”

A school in progress in Soda

As a person, Chhavi says she has learnt to become more patient and also ‘ listen’ to people. She has begun to understand problems better and also finds solutions much faster. Her five-year term will end in three years time and there are little chances that she will become the sarpanch again. “The next reservation may be for some category and so I I may not get the opportunity. So in the time that I have before me, I have to do much. More than anything else I have to make the village self-sufficient so that it can fight back not only the vagaries of nature but also of corrupt officials who do not want to see progress at India’s basic level of existence which are its villages.”

Soda women working at a newly set-up masala manufacturing unit

Chhavi Rajawat has already put Soda on the world map. Ever since she has taken over, she has spoken at various national and international conferences (including at the United Nations) and has had media cover her cause. And yes, the MBA sarpanch from Soda is a far cry from the television serial Balika Vadhu in which the central character is a woman sarpanch and is believed (not confirmed) to have been modeled after Chhavi. Besides, the post, there is just nothing similar. The biggest difference being that Chhavi’s problems are real and when she is out on the field, under the Rajasthan sun hunting solutions and arguing with powers above, there is no one who shouts out, “cut, good shot, now pack up.”