Manasa Varanasi: “Miss India gave me the chance to drive social change on a large scale” – Beauty Pageants – Indiatimes

Winning the prestigious national pageant, Femina Miss India 2020, meant much more to her than the sparkling crown and the beautiful gown. Manasa, who was an academic brilliance, set out on the path to reach out to as many kids as possible to set them free from misery.

Manasa has been working with less-fortunate kids for the past few years and aspired to much more after learning the struggle many children go through in our country, especially her state, Telangana. “My social mission revolves around children, and the reason for the same is, even before Miss India, I used to volunteer with an NGO called ‘Make a Difference.’ Being there with the children gave me a lot of clarity in my own life; of course, I had my job, friends, and family, everything revolves around me, but with the children, I was able to see the world from a very different perspective because I was interacting with people whose realities were very different from mine,” she asserted.

Every weekend, Manasa would walk down to the shelter home in her neighborhood and teach subjects like math and English to the kids at the NGO, and that was indeed a life-changing experience. She aspired to do something more significant to help kids across our country who are abused, but she was still to find the right path, and that’s when she decided to participate in pageants. Opening up about her social initiatives so far, she states, “Miss India gave me a chance to elevate the work that I used to do. I no longer only work in my local shelter; here, I have the chance to be a vocal ambassador and drive change on a much larger scale in my state and potentially even the country. I am grateful for the opportunity because through ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ (BWAP), I had the chance to meet with so many people in Hyderabad, the child welfare department of Telangana, politicians, people working in the fashion space people, rescue workers, there’s so many people who came on board. I even had the chance to interact with children who were victims of child marriage, child labor, and I think just speaking to so many different people helped me understand how I can be of service, how I can better use the opportunity as a Miss India.”

With her campaign, 10-9-8, Manasa has managed to rescue many kids from vulnerable conditions and hopes to replicate the model across the country as then the world.

Congratulations, queen, for your vision and steadfast mission for a better tomorrow!