No height requirement for Miss India

The Issue

Miss India is a national beauty pageant that selects women to represent India in international beauty pageants such as Miss World. However, Miss India only accepts Indian women who are 5’5″ and above (165+ cm), without heels. As a beauty pageant that declares that a woman's worth is based on her character rather than her physical appearance, this rule is contradicting. Indian women of any size should be allowed to participate in a beauty pageant because having beauty standards itself is flawed and outdated. Women regardless of their height should be seen and heard in society. Also, not seeing positive representations of women of different sizes in media especially in the beauty industry, negatively affects how women perceive themselves. A beauty pageant is one platform for people to address societal expectations and surpass them. Hence, we request the Miss India organization to re-evaluate their rules to be more inclusive towards Indian women and remove the height requirement.

1,455

The Issue

Miss India is a national beauty pageant that selects women to represent India in international beauty pageants such as Miss World. However, Miss India only accepts Indian women who are 5’5″ and above (165+ cm), without heels. As a beauty pageant that declares that a woman's worth is based on her character rather than her physical appearance, this rule is contradicting. Indian women of any size should be allowed to participate in a beauty pageant because having beauty standards itself is flawed and outdated. Women regardless of their height should be seen and heard in society. Also, not seeing positive representations of women of different sizes in media especially in the beauty industry, negatively affects how women perceive themselves. A beauty pageant is one platform for people to address societal expectations and surpass them. Hence, we request the Miss India organization to re-evaluate their rules to be more inclusive towards Indian women and remove the height requirement.

The Decision Makers

The Times Group
The Times Group
Femina
Femina
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Petition created on May 15, 2020