There was a sense of disbelief among ministers and ambassadors from diverse nations when the chairperson of the 11th Info-Poverty World Conference held at the United Nations introduced the jeans-clad Chhavi Rajawat as head of a village in India.
For, from a distance one could easily mistake Rajawat, an articulate, computer-savvy woman, for a frontline model or at least a Bollywood actress. 
But she is sarpanch of Soda village, 60 kilometres from Jaipur, in backward Rajasthan and the changing face of growing dynamic rural India.
30-year-old Rajawat, India’s youngest and the only MBA to become a village head — the position mostly occupied by elders, quit her senior management position with Bharti-Tele Ventures of Airtel Group to serve her beloved villagers as sarpanch.
Rajawat participated in a panel discussion at the two-day meet at the UN on March 24 and 25 on how civil society can implement its actions and spoke on the role of civil society in fighting poverty and promoting development.
It is necessary to re-think through various strategies of action that includes new technologies like e-services in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in an era where resources have become limited, she told the delegates of the international conference.
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.
In the past year alone, Chhavi and the villagers of Soda have brought about a radical change in the village purely through the villagers’ own efforts. There was no outside support like help from NGOs, public or private sector.
On achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Rajawat said she sought full support from outside agencies and the corporate world. She offers her gratitude to United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) which had deputed its senior adviser in India Mr Babu Lal Jain to visit Soda and extend all support in the opening of the first bank in the village, which helped out in making the difference.
In the next three years she anticipates to transform the village. She mentions that she is the least interested in monetary benefits. She aims at people and organizations adopting projects in the village as often projects fail owing to lack of a local connect and that is what she wants to provide by bridging that gap. She intends the conference to help bring about faster change so that this generation can enjoy that kind of life that is taken for granted.
The conference ended with a thunderous applause from the delegates.
