Miss World contest 2023 in India
By Justice Markandey Katju
It has been announced that India is hosting the Miss World 2023 Pageant.
This news disgusts me, and I regard it vulgar and an insult to our women..
I am not against beautiful women. But consider the facts.
India has widespread poverty, maybe 75% of our 1400 million people are poor..The brave Indian women, particularly of poor and middle class sections of society (who consist of 90% of our population), are bravely feeding and looking after their families on the meager amount their husbands or they themselves are earning, and that too anonymously and with heroic self effacement.
It is estimated by Global Hunger Index that about half of our children are malnourished, many being wasted and/or stunted.
This means that that almost 70% of our women are malnourished, because a woman would rather remain hungry herself than see her children hungry.
Estimates are that 57% of Indian women are anaemic.
And yet, despite this situation, and the exorbitant rise of prices of foodstuffs, medicines, etc in our country, our women are undauntedly struggling, inconspicuously and in anonymity, to keep their families going, often toiling from morning to night. They are often discriminated against in various ways. Do they not deserve our praise and salute? I regard the ordinary Indian women from poor and middle classes as our true heroes, not the winners of beauty contests ( who usually come from the affluent classes )..
This being the situation, I regard beauty contests, fashion parades, etc in India as obnoxious, gross, abhorrent, and indecent displays of profanity. They may be acceptable in the developed countries, but certainly not in poor countries like India.
Who actually benefits from these beauty pageants ? It is certainly not the masses. Beauty contests work like money-making factories for the organisers. High-end fashion labels, make-up brands are promoted by an endorsement through candidates. Nobody cares about the indigenous beauties, the masses are just seen as a huge market for these international companies to sell their products to in exchange for a title given to a woman who matches their ideals and makes their products look desirable after winning.
If it was in my hands I would ban all such beauty contests, fashion parades, etc.
