For Manushi Chhillar, the Miss World title hasn't been just about the crown. For her, the crown has come with a sense of responsibility, a push to give back to the world, and her country. By now, we all know about the 'PadMan Challenge' and what it is doing to bring out in the open the conversation about a taboo topic: periods, menstrual cycle. But what many of us may not be aware of is that Manushi Chhillar is touring all over the country for the #BeautyWithPurpose project. Her cause? Educate people about and also improve menstrual hygiene conditions for women.
Manushi, a former medical student, has already spoken about using her win to advocate menstrual hygiene. She is currently four days into the tour and has covered Hyderabad, Kolkata and Siliguri. Today, she posted this on her Instagram account:
For the uninitiated, the Beauty with a Purpose program is a registered charity, a non-profit organisation associated with Miss World, raising money for humanitarian projects across the world.
Miss World 2017 saw five winners for the Beauty with a Purpose project, including contestants from South Africa, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam along with Manushi Chhillar from India.
Reality check time: in most parts of the India, women are still considered "dirty" when they are menstruating. But what is more striking is that over 200 million women in the country lack awareness on menstrual hygiene. More on this from the reigning Miss World herself, right here:
The result of the Purpose Tour is remarkable in its reach throughout the country. Personal interactions with the women folk of many villages and remote areas in the nation help bring about the education that is the need of the hour. And obviously, it doesn't hurt when your educator is not just a beautiful woman crowned for a title but also a former medical student.
What should be given due notice is the fact that Manushi Chhillar advocated menstrual health and hygiene, even as a medical student, working with Project Shakti, a project in Haryana to do with educating women on menstruation. The result? Haryana chief minister ML Khattar announced that he would be making sanitary pads free for all girls in the schools run by the state government.
Manushi began her tour in Hyderabad.
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From there she went on to meet kids from the slums of Kolkata, talking and spreading awareness on menstrual hygiene.
She participated in a session on feminine hygiene organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce:
Not just that, she even went a step ahead with giving a hand to making a jute sanitary pad at the Indian Jute Industries Research Association in Kolkata where they are making biodegradable and low cost sanitary pads from jute.
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Manushi is currently in Siliguri, from where she shared her latest post. What can we say? You go girl.
Godspeed.
