MANUSHI CHHILLAR: Women’s Empowerment

 

I think the first thing when I came to know that I‘ll be speaking over here is that I was actually crossing my stars because I know nothing about economics. I am a science student, so I will introduce myself. So, you all know my name, I am Manushi and I come from a family of doctors and I am studying to be a doctor as well. I am 20 right now, and I have been honored to be your Miss World for this year and carry out her duties. Therefore, growing up, I had a very normal childhood, as any Indian girl from a middle-class family would have. I got my education. I had my siblings, and then suddenly overnight, my life changed and now I am here. Therefore, we just had a panel about women entrepreneurs. In addition, I know the word entrepreneur sounds scary because you start thinking about all business, which is something I do not understand. However, I think being Miss World and being an entrepreneur are quite similar because you have similar goals. You want to bring change. I think change is something, which is, to me, it is synonymous with being an entrepreneur. You love what you do, and you love risks.

In addition, being a Miss World is definitely about taking risks. Like I came up here to speak in front of you, which is a very big risk for me. However, I think most importantly, we do not let other people tell us how we are supposed to work or how things should be done. We make our own decisions and I think all those entrepreneurs out there must congratulate themselves because it takes a lot of courage to do that.

Women are doing wonders as entrepreneurs. Recently, I read in Kerala about a system called Food on Wheels, it was providing employment to women. Therefore, they would provide tiffins and nutritious food to people who wanted to work. However, you know, out of all wonderful entrepreneurs, I think one such wonderful woman is my mother. It is not hidden from the world how much obsessed I am with her. We all are with our mothers. However, I believe that all mothers are entrepreneurs. And I did look up, I will be very honest, I looked up the definition of an entrepreneur on Google. We have the head of Google here, right? So, just onstage. So, I looked it up on Google and I realized that being a mother is very similar to being an entrepreneur because you set up a system, which is aa family, and you invest, you take risks and you actually have the most important job of raring of the future of not your family or not of an individual, but of the entire world. That is a very tough and very risky job to do.

So, for me, all mothers are entrepreneurs. On the Miss World stage, in my top five round, I remember when I was, I did not know what was happening that day. It just felt like another rehearsal to me. And the moment I reached to top 10 that is when I saw my parents. I saw my family in the crowd because I was trying to spot them for the whole while. And they were coming down to give an interview. And at that moment, I knew it. I knew I was going to do something great tonight. And the moment I reached to top five, I remember someone telling me that, you know, it is all right, what happens tonight. Do not be nervous because you have come to the top five and you have made history.

You are in the top five in Miss World 2017, which is a big, big, big thing. Because coming from a girl who, like being a girl who never really wore heels or who never knew how to even apply eyeliner, it was a very big deal for me to be out there. But the moment I saw my parents and I saw how proud they were of me, I knew that even if I don’t walk out with a crown, I knew I was going to be a winner tonight. And that is how my answer came at that moment. And believe me, you asked me anything, even if you would’ve asked me, who’s the president of India, I would have said mom because I was so emotional that time. However, definitely, mothers do deserve the highest salaries because, as I just said, you know, they are, and I remember one thing from my economics book is that humans are the largest resource.

In addition, I mean, mothers are taking care of that resource of the largest capital any country can have, which is human capital. Therefore, going away from that, I think we all know, my mother is a superwoman and she is a working mom. She is a neuro-chemist, so very disciplined in life. However, at the same, time, she’s the most compassionate, the kindest woman that I have ever, ever, ever know. She is not only my mom, but she is also my best friend. She is my role model. She is someone I have looked up to growing up and she is my guardian angel, my Durga Maa, I call her. In addition, I know that irrespective, she lets me make decisions. She lets me make all kinds of mistakes. In addition, when I come home, I know that even if I might not at that moment think that I won, for that moment, I might think it is a failure.

However, you know, she is there for me when I come back home. In addition, it is not easy when you have two worlds to balance, because I am very proud to say that she has done amazing as a doctor. She is an amazing doctor, but at the same time, she has never made me feel like she did not have the time for me, or she has always been there for me as a mother. In addition, this is something that many women out there, all the women here have been doing, who are mothers as well. That is something that has always amazed me as a child. I do not know how you can balance two wonderful things so perfectly without even having a hint of worry on your face. Having said this, I think, I feel that are not women already the most powerful. They are entrepreneurs, they are creating the future of the country. Therefore, they are already the most powerful.

In addition, when it comes to women’s empowerment, I think they must realize that they have such a big responsibility, which they are doing kickass, like complete pros, that they are complete pros at it. So, aren’t they already empowered? Well,… for me, women empowerment was not actually two words, which I knew a lot about because I never felt that I needed to be empowered. However, growing up, I come from the state of Haryana. I have never stayed there until I went to college. In addition, I chose to educate myself at a college, which is a girl’s college in rural Haryana because I believed something that my father told me that if you go to the remotest of places, as a doctor, you would learn the most. In addition, I wanted to learn.

However, when I went to my college, it was completely different from what I had imagined. In addition, that is when as an 18-year old, I had an idea to do something when it came to menstruation. Because now, all I understood was health. And I felt that well, menstruation, if women are more comfortable about menstruation and, you know, we can take care of their hygiene, then definitely it won’t boil down to diseases such as pelvic inflammatory diseases and your RTIs, and that could, RTI, reproductive tract infection, not the RTI you guys know. Therefore, that is how I started my project. Therefore, in the local areas, they started calling it Shakti when I would go. Because I mean, Shakti, you all know that every woman is considered as a form of Shakti and Shakti means power and to empower. In addition, that is now more than just a health project; it became an empowerment project for me.

I showed the project to the Miss India Team. They really liked it. It was not a project at that time. It was just an idea. I was doing awareness programs with the help of my parents. However, after winning Miss India you have something called ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ at Miss World. Beauty with a purpose is the vision and mission of Miss World. That is what Miss World stands for. It gives young girls, like me, not just me, but also all 130 countries that represent Miss World, an opportunity to bring a change in their country or in their communities. In addition, well, Miss India wanted to work on my project. Therefore, I worked in macros in three states in North India, more than 20m village communities did and we created women entrepreneurs back i9n. Therefore, we encouraged women from the village to source sanitary pads from Walmart. Therefore, I collaborated with Walmart India and a local manufacturer of sanitary pads. And so, these women would purchase low-cost sanitary pads and sell them in their village because more than the lack of awareness and the high cost of sanitary pads which women felt, it was the taboo that was associated with it and women would feel uncomfortable to buy sanitary pads from mostly a man who’s shopkeeper. Therefore, that is how that was my short-term project.

I remember being shortlisted as a semi-finalist for Beauty with a Purpose at Miss World, which is the Biggest award when you go from a Miss World competition. In addition, I was looking at my project. For three and a half months, I traveled across those states. It was not easy to go to these places. I went to a village where children did not even have clothes to wear. Therefore, I could imagine that if they cannot afford proper clothes, how they can afford sanitary pads.

I mean. That is the kind of mentality that they have over there. In addition, as a 20-year-old to see so much, it just makes you want to do so much because I am still growing. I am still learning. I am still in that stage where I am figuring out what I truly want to do in life. In addition, that is when I found my purpose. In addition, in the top 20, there were amazing projects. However, when I saw my project come up, I had tears in my eyes because I could not believe that I had done it. Of course, with the help of a huge team. In addition, I won beauty with a purpose. In addition, I am very proud to say that I am the first Miss World who also won beauty with a purpose. After which of course, not only my project, after winning Miss World, we were here in India. This year’s beauty with a purpose to is started my home country from my project where we traveled for nine days. Not only I and the Miss World team, but also we had continental winners. We had young girls, so they are not politicians. They are not powerful people, but they are just young girls just like me. They are students, they are daughters, and one of them is still in school.

In addition, they all came down and we all were traveling across India, trying to spread awareness, trying to create different systems. We met with people called Akar Innovations. Most of you must know about them. In addition, we met these tribal communities at the Bhutan border. We traveled a lot, but we met up with politicians, the honorable vice president, and our external affairs minister. They were kind enough to meet us and support us on our project, after which I traveled to different countries. I can go on and on about that, but these are young women who are doing this. They are young women who are bringing this change and that in itself makes us feel so empowered. I think many people ask me the question that how did you prepare for Miss World. When did you start preparing for Miss World? In addition, I have no answer to it. In addition, when I think about it, I think it's 20 years. And I know I speak like a 30-year-old and I think like a six-year-old, but I am 20 years old, believe me on that. And I think it’s 20 years of being the woman who never treated herself differently, just because she was a girl growing up in a family where she didn’t know the meaning of the words, women empowerment because she never felt she needed it. In addition, I think I was fortunate. In addition, all I can say is that I pray that in the future, no one knows the meaning of women’s empowerment because we do not need these words. Women are equal to men. Thank you!