Chitra Sarwara
Chitra Sarwara is a second generation politician. She is affiliated to Indian National Congress. She is presently holding the post of National General Secretary and Social Media Incharge of All India Mahila Congress. She has also served as Senior Vice President, Spokesperson and Coordinator for Observers and Co-observers of Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
She was elected as a Corporator of Ambala Municipal Corporation, Haryana, on 13th June 2013.
Personal life
Her grandfather Hazara Singh Sarwara was an English and Urdu teacher and Grandmother Chinto Devi, a homemaker.Parents
Chitra Sarwara was born on 18 March 1975 at Ambala Cantt, Haryana, to Nirmal Singh and Naib Kaur. Her father is a member of Indian National Congress and a four times elected representative of Naggal Constituency, Haryana. He has held the office of Minister of Animal Husbandry, PWD and later Minister of Revenue.She has three siblings- brothers UdayVir Singh, Chetak Singh and sister Noor Sarwara.
Spouse
Chahal, an international Professional Golfer and Son of Col. Niranjan Singh.Children
The couple has two children, a daughter and a son. Their son was born with a rare and fatal disorder, biliary atresia that would affect and damage his liver completely. In December 2016, when he was merely 8 months old, Chitra donated her liver to her child.Education
She has done her early education from Convent of Jesus and Mary, Ambala and Bhartiya Public School in Ambala Cantt.Later joined and completed her schooling from Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, Sonipat in 1994.
She is a National Volleyball player, winning many State and National titles as a part of the Rai team. She represented Haryana in the National School Volleyball Championship in Purnia, Bihar in 1993 which was won by the Haryana team. She has attended India Camp in Bangalore and represented India against Sri Lanka in 1994 in volleyball matches.
She has graduated from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2000 as an Industrial Designer specializing in Furniture design.
Career
She has worked with Tesseract Design in Bangalore and then went on to Idiom Design and Consulting Banglore. In Delhi she worked as an independent Design consultant and eventually as Design Head of the Delhi office of Idiom Design and Consulting.While with Idiom Design and Consulting, she was Design Manager for developing the 2010 Commonwealth Games Image and Look program which involved developing the games branding from Logo to application of Image and Look program across city and collaterals.
Political career
- In 2013, Elected as an independent Municipal Corporator from Ambala Cantt, a newly formed Corporation.
- In March 2015, she joined Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee as a State Coordinator for Observers & Co-observers of Rohtak- Karnal Division and as a spokesperson under the leadership of the dynamic State President Smt. Sumitra Chauhan.
- In 2016 she was appointed Senior Vice President of the Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
- In 2017 she was appointed Social Media Incharge for All India Mahila Congress during the tenure of AIMC Pres Smt. Shobha Oza and started the first concerted effort by the Organisation to build its online presence through Website and other social media platforms.
- 13th Dec 2017: All India Mahila Congress Website was launched by Indian National Congress President Sh. Rahul Gandhi during a Mahila Congress workshop - The Way Ahead, organised under the aegis of Sushmita Dev, President AIMC.
- March 2018 appointed as Secretary, All India Mahila Congress.
- Coming from a Design background and with immense interest in developing identity and organisations, Chitra picked up the long standing project of developing an individual identity/logo for Mahila Congress.
- 7th August 2018, Mahila Congress Logo and Flag was launched by INC President Sh. Rahul Gandhi during the Mahila Adhikaar Sammelan.
- 30th Aug 2018 appointed as General Secretary, All India Mahila Congress.
Political Activities
- In May 2015, she organised a massive women's symposium on Martyr's Day- Sh Rajiv Gandhi Ji's death anniversary. Rajiv Gandhi- Ek Vyaktitav, Ek Soch was attended by senior INC leadership of state and women from Ambala.
- In 2017, Mahila Congress started a signature campaign #WomenFor33, More than 10,000 signatures collected under this campaign in Ambala.
- On 14th October 2017, was part of AIMC delegation led by Sushmita Dev that submitted the 32 lakh+ signatures collected by Mahila Congress from all over India under the #WomenFor33 campaign to the Hon’ble President of India, Sh. Ram Nath Kovind.
- 30th September 2018, organised women program in Ambala as a part of Mahila Adhikaar Yatra- Haryana.
Agitations
- Feb 2015, took part in Kisaan Andolan called by Rahul Gandhi against land acquisition bill changes proposed by BJP govt.
- March 2015, took part in a Candle march protest 'Meri Beti Mera Gaurav' against Female foeticide organised by Danik Bhaskar.
- April 2015, Protest in Chandigarh against the misgovernance of Haryana govt.
- June 2015, took part in protest against 1 year of Narendra Modi government in Delhi.
- September 2016, led a women protest in Ambala against the price rise of LPG, Petrol and Diesel.
- March 2017, took part in protest organised by Ambala Congress against false promise of BJP govt to bring back Black Money.
- 14 May 2017, took part in protest against BJP govt at Chandigarh for increase in crimes against women in Haryana.
- 23 June 2017, protest organised in Ambala with small scale business owners against implementation of GST.
- July 2017, protest against no legal action against son of Subhash Barala, BJP Haryana Chief, accused of stalking a girl.
- 25 July 2017, joined sansad gherao protest on completion 3 years of central government.
- 6 August 2017, Chitra organized a protest march in Ambala Cantt along with the Mahila Congress unit of Ambala against not arrest of Stalking case accused son of BJP Haryana Chief.
- August 2017 Protest outside house of Ambala Lok Sabha MP Rattan Lal Kataria, against his sexist comments on INC women leader Selja Kumari.
- 8th November 2017, protest on Demonetization anniversary, observed as Black Day all over India by Congress.
- 14 December 2017, agitation against election commission.
- 19 December 2017, protest outside Municipal Cooperation against lack of development in Ambala.
- 9 December 2017, participated protest organised by citizens to get Justice for a 5-year girl raped and brutally murdered in Boh Village, Ambala Cantt.
- 17 January 2018, Protest in Chandigarh against Manohar Lal Khattar government on the various rape cases in Haryana.
- 17 February 2018 joined a protest against Haryana government organized by Anganwadi workers.
- Fast for Peace and Harmony.
- 8 March 2018, protest outside parliament demanding passage of #WomenFor33 Bill.
- Kala Diwas.
- 15 March 2018 protest in Ambala with Congress team demanding action against Health & Sport minister of Haryana Nephew, who is accused of fraud case.
- 21 March 2018 Candle march in Ambala Cantt against the Central govt failing to bring back 39 Indians from Iraq.
- Jan Aakrosh Rally.
- Save Democracy Day.
- Vishwasghat Diwas.
- Mahila Aakrosh Rally
- April 2018, protest outside Divisional Railway Manager office against the delay in railway over bridge project.
- 16 May 2018, protest against Haryana govt decision of Corporation breach along with INC Ambala team.
- 10 September 2018 organized a protest with Ambala Congress team against price rise of LPG, Petrol & Diesel.
- September 2018, Bharat Band agitation, protest against Central Bureau of Investigation working as a puppet of Narendra Modi government.
- 4 February 2019, HPMC protest at Chandigarh against accused who said inappropriate comment regarding Smt. Priyanka Gandhi.
- 16 February 2019, lead a Candle march at Ambala Cantt for the Martyrs of Pulwama Attack.
Social front
The Light Within
The Light Within : Launched as an informal professional and social networking platform for the woman power in Ambala.Idea was to get women professionals, achievers and contributors from diverse fields to work together, pool efforts and do something to make a difference for bettering our lives and society.
- Under TLW, organised preparatory workshops in all Ambala Government Senior Secondary Schools to help students ready for exams with tips and tricks on stress management, memory enhancement and how to attempt exams under this banner.
- Organised workshops on menstrual hygiene for distributing free sanitary napkins amongst girl children from financially challenged backgrounds in collaboration with NGOs, Gynecologist and social workers.
iHELP- Welfare Information Helpline
iHELP- Welfare Information Helpline: In 2013, collaborating with enthusiastic youngsters and Team Suraksha team. It's a toll free Social Welfare Information helpline, where anyone can call and receive details of various Social Welfare Schemes provided by Government of Haryana and correct information on Forms, due procedures, offices involved.iHelp camps
iHelp grew from a mere helpline to iHelp camps where teams led by Chitra would visit an area, complete with free forms of schemes, printers for scanning documents and stamps for sign and have mass form verification/ filling camps for all those who needed to apply for any government scheme.iHelp still continues as a toll-free call service.
Social activities
- In July 2014, led by her, INC Ambala team organised a Blood Donation Camp to honour the Kargil Martryrs. The event collected over 200 Bags of blood and Smt. Pratibha Singh, widow of Kargil Martyr Vinay Choudhary graced the event as the Chief Guest and Indian Army Medical team came to collect Blood donations themselves too.
- On 20 Aug 2017, Chitra helped private hostipal to organize a Eye Checkup camp in Village Machhonda.
- Aug 2018, organized a Flood Relief Camp for Kerala. The two day donation camp saw Ambala turn out in massive numbers to participate.
- In 2018, Chitra organised verious camps in Ambala Cantt to educate village and slum area young ladies and women on Menstrual Hygiene.
- On Yoga Day 2019, Chitra along with Poonam Sangwan organised a yoga camp in Village Shahpur of Ambala Cantt.
Positions held
- July 2013- July 2018: Elected Municipal corporator, Ambala Municipal Corporation, Haryana.
- 2014: Appointed Member District level Vigilance Committee for PDS and Chairman Social welfare and Pensions ad hoc Committee.
- 2015: Appointed State Coordinator for Observers and Co-observers & Spokesperson., Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
- 2015: Appointed Incharge of Karnal and Rohtak Divisions in Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
- 2016: Appointed Senior Vice President, Haryana Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
- 2017: Appointed Incharge, Social Media, All India Mahila Congress.
- Mar 2018: Appointed Secretary, All India Mahila Congress, Incharge Social Media.
- Aug 2018: Appointed General Secretary, All India Mahila Congress, Incharge Social Media.