Chhavi Rajawat has been a two time Sarpanch/elected head of the Village Council of Soda located in the District of Tonk, Rajasthan, India.

Chhavi is recognised as the first MBA Sarpanch of India. She has received multiple awards for her service that include First Ladies National award from former Hon’ble President Shri Ram Nath Kovind; Reebok’s Fit To Fight award; Young Indian Leader award by CNN/IBN; Grassroots Women of the Decade Achievers award; Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Shakti National award; All India Woman Achiever’s award; Yuva award; Changing Face of Indian Politics award and; has also been felicitated by Former President Late Shri Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

Chhavi is an Aspen fellow, a Young Global Leader with World Economic Forum. She has participated in multiple National and International programs including the 11th Info- Poverty World Conference held at the United Nations in New York City; The Australia- India Youth Dialogue; International Visitors Leadership Programme; Asian Forum on Global Governance; and been a keynote speaker / guest speaker at various events including Harvard India Conference, Nestle’s Annual Leadership Conference, The Annual Communication Meet of Mahindra & Mahindra; IIMPACT – A Global IIM Alumni Meet and, many more.

Chhavi is an alumna of Rishi Valley and Mayo College Girls’ School. She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi and followed it up with business management from Pune. She worked in the corporate sector during which she undertook myriad roles in media, hospitality, and the telecom industry.

Chhavi is currently a Director with The Oberoi Group of Hotels (EIH Ltd.), The Miracle Foundation and is on the Advisory Board of Bayer’s South Asia Council and Vedica Scholars Programme for Women in Delhi.

Chhavi has attended executive educational programs at ISB, Hyderabad and Harvard Kennedy School, USA. She co-chaired the World Economic Forum on India and was invited to be part of the first Obama Summit held in Chicago and, Town hall in Delhi.

Chhavi’s aim has been to make Soda a model village by pursuing an integrated, sustainable, gender-balanced development that can be replicated in other villages. To accomplish her goals to bridge that divide Chhavi reached out to garner support in the form of expertise as well as funds / adoption of projects from the government as well as non-government sectors including corporations, NGOs and individuals to collectively work towards developing village Soda.

During her first term, Chhavi was successful in bringing transparency into the council office, and water to a drought hit region. She also promoted tree plantation, constructed roads, opened a bank, encouraged women and girls to open bank accounts to inculcate the habit of saving, provided support to the agrarian community by bringing them out of the clutches of money-lenders, ensured provision of toilets for all households to make Soda an open defecation free Panchayat, provided a better infrastructure to the government run girls’ school, saved a girls’ college in the village from shutting down, mobilised parents to educate their children, provided electricity to every household and, introduced a waste management project among other accomplishments.

Chhavi’s focus during her second term was on improving the quality of education at pre-school, primary school level as well as at the government run high school where students are only taught Hindi Literature, Sanskrit Literature and Geography. Her wish has been to introduce vocational training programs to help provide alternate sources of income to the village residents; improve the ecological balance and farming practices.

Chhavi is currently working on improving farming practices and running Eminent Girls College in Soda that had shut operations in 2015. Through the college Chhavi hopes to make a deeper impact by empowering the young students training to become teachers. She believes, with the right intervention and support, these young women could become champions and help uplift their respective villages and communities in the rural sector.