One of the biggest beauty pageant events, Miss World 2019, was held at the ExCel London on 14 December. The winner of the competition was Miss Jamaica Toni Ann-Singh, who was crowned by former Miss World Vanessa Ponce from Mexico. Ophely Mezino of France and Suman Rao of India were the first and second runners up respectively.
British journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan was the head judge at the event. 120 countries took part in the event, out of which 10 reached the finals. Miss Nigeria and Brazil had also qualified for the top 5, out of which the winners were selected on the basis of questions asked by Morgan.
Suman Rao, who hails from Rajasthan, had won the Miss India 2019 title earlier this year. Speaking to IANS after the event, she had said, “Being crowned Miss India is a dream come true. For me, before the competition started, winning was important and that is why I was working towards it. I am always focused and sincere. But now I know that more than the result, the desire of winning is important because that drives me to stay focused.”
Suman had also said that she wanted to be the voice of gender equality in her community. “I want to be the voice of gender equality. I come from a community where girls go through quite a lot due to inequality, and that also regarding some of the very basic choices. I want to create awareness among them because freedom is about equal opportunity.”
“I am very fortunate to be born in a family where my parents let me do everything that I want, but not all girls are as lucky as I am. The point is that when it comes to our right, we should be aware of it, and stand for ourselves first. When it comes to gender discrimination, in any part of the world, the root cause is a mentality that needs to be changed. Once the mind is in the right direction, it reflects on society,” Suman had said.
(Inputs: IANS)
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