Technically ‘Waste’ is something when a resource isn’t utilized at all or to its fullest extent and this is what exactly we are seeing happening a lot in India pageantry now a day, a pageant system which used to be a SERIOUS threat at any pageant a decade back. People have often accused Femina Miss India and Miss Diva of wasting certain beauties who could have done extremely well at an international pageant or at least deserved to go to international pageants. Let us have a look at brief history of ‘Wasted Beauties’ by FMI and Miss Diva.

Wasted Beauties

Zoya Afroz: Zoya Afroz was the first ever girl who was a Top 3 finisher yet wasn’t sent to any pageant at all after a long legacy of FMI where they always sent their Top 3 winners to some international pageant. Moreover, the blunder was that Zoya was actually crowned as Miss India International on stage in 2013, the sashes were later on replaced with second runner-up. Many people believed that Zoya could have been a PERFECT delegate for Miss International that year as she had this Doll kind of features and a very commercial face but the reason is still unknown as on why was she left out of international delegation by the FMI team.

Naweli Deshmukh: All those who see the transformation of Naweli still cry that why wasn’t Naweli sent to any pageant. She was a strong performer with perfect speaking skills and a girl with strong projection skills. May be she couldn’t have won the title but she would have got an India a  high placement.

Natasha Assadi: Natasha Assadi was actually a very surprising Top 3 at Miss Diva 2015 but then we can definitely say that she was really good back then. Although her appearances later on had been disappointing, we won’t blame her totally as she wasn’t competing at any international pageant.

Sushruti Krishna: Many thought that she could have been a perfect representative to Miss World, had Priyadarshini not win the contest that night. Her strong focus, confidence and beauty was sufficient to land India in Top 5 of any minor pageant that Femina team has apart from Miss World and Miss Universe. Many believed that Sushruti herself deny to compete for any other pageant apart from Miss World but we aren’t sure of this.

Aradhana Buragohain: We absolutely loved the transformation of Aradhana Buragohain from her Femina Miss India 2016 stint to Miss Diva 2016 stint. A pure north east beauty conquering a crown and still not getting a chance to prove her mettle anywhere was really saddening. We so wish Miss Diva had realized the potential of this girl and trained her to compete at an international pageant.

The above mentioned girls weren’t sent to any international pageant by Femina Miss India/Miss Diva team not because they didn’t have the franchise for them because they have picked Lopamudra Raut, Sushrii Shreya Mishra, Vijaya Sharma, Swati Kain, Purva Rana etc instead of runners-up and sent them to compete internationally even when they didn’t win any title in their respective competition. Now many argue that it was because organisation found those girls better than the girls who were runner-up. We have two questions,

Question-1: Is this good?

Answer: May be. You might get a more polished girl who fell out of luck in finale.

Question-2: Is this FAIR?

Answer: Not at All.

Why sending a random girl over a runner-up is Unfair?

• Most girls participate in Femina Miss India/Miss Diva to win the contest and wear the sash that says ‘INDIA’ at an international pageant someday. Many in fact dream this since their childhood. When you end up as a runner up at Femina Miss India (Example), technically you are one of the winners. Hence, your journey to re-compete at Femina Miss India is OVER and most probably at Miss Diva as the management is ultimately the same. Hence, the dream of the girl is over forever if she isn’t sent to any pageant by the team. We are not sure about the current clause but in past probably there was a clause that you can’t even compete at other national pageants for next 3 years.
• If you are one of the Top 3 of Femina Miss India/Miss Diva, you are bound by the contract that you can’t work for any organisation directly. Everything will be through the management.  This basically means you become an employee to the management. Do you get a SALARY as Miss India? As far as we know, the answer is NO.!!! Many girls give up their dream jobs, studies, career to spend one year as Miss India and not get any fixed salary for 12 months or even? A girl might be earning soemthing out of assignments that she gets by the virtue of being a FMI winner but that isn’t a fixed amount. Right?
• Any pageant is appreciated because of their conduct on fairness. Although there is no more proof of a pageant result being fair since we don’t get to see the scores anymore, we would still like to believe that FMI and Miss Diva winners come from a fair process of selection. Now, when the runners-up still don’t get to compete but a girl who was mere a Top 5 or Top 10 gets to compete above them, isn’t it what we call unfair? Because in spite of not being the winner, she is still getting what runners-up dreamt off. Moreover, that non-winner girl can always compete back to either pageant but a runner-up can’t as she is already deemed as winner.
• A runner-up who don’t get chance to compete at International pageant may start feeling discriminated because most of the times, people will talk about the girls who are representing India at a pageant. For an EXAMPLE, Imagine Manushi Chillar goes to Miss World 2017 and Priyanka Kumari goes to Miss United Continents or Miss Grand International 2017 but Femina Team drops out Sana Dua (Just an example)  from the list, won’t she feel left out every time she has to mane an appearance every where? Because other 2 girls would be called by there title like Miss World India/Miss United Continents India but Sana would be called as 1st runner-up. This can lead to low self esteem of a girl and may lead her to go into a depression mode at times [Even if its a rare possibility].

Hence, considering all the above mentioned points, we feel that the decision of not sending runners-up to any pageant is not really portraying a good image to the future aspirants. Either you send all 3 winners to some pageant or crown just one winner and not keep any runner-up under contract and hand pick you girls later. This way even the first runner-up get chance to try her luck again, like most national pageant does it. Don’t miss to cast your vote on what you think about this issue?