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 western Indian state Rajasthan 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.