As a contestant in the Haut Monde Mrs India Worldwide 2023 Pageant, I was promised an opportunity to showcase my talents and have a great experience in the world of pageantry. However, what I experienced was far from that. The organizers tricked and humiliated us, their target audience of middle aged Indian women living overseas, who are seeking validation.  Finalists were used for free social media marketing of their brand in the name of tasks.

First, they collected a huge non-refundable registration fees from us. They gave us social media tasks which were supposed to be for marking. It was not a fair competition as contestants who hired professional Social media marketers, did paid promotions, HM recommended paid private grooming lessons were handpicked and chosen winners. During our social media evaluation meet, the rest of the contestants efforts were not even looked at or recognized. All our time & effort felt like a mere waste on free promotion of their brand. They simply took into account the reach of our content, based on the number of the followers. No credit was given for the quality of content or creativity. 

Contestants were not allowed to pick the social cause they would represent. To make matters worse, A high target was set on Ketto.org to raise money for their own charitable trust called Shanti Sejal. Ketto.org only accepted donations in INR, since contestants were around the world, we had to collect funds in our bank accounts and do a fund transfer to the organizer’s personal Dubai based pvt bank account, not that of the charitable trust. Contestants lost their credibility in their circle of friends and contributors as no tax redemption was given for the huge donations. This is not only unethical but also illegal.

The event was held in Bahi Ajman Palace over a week. We were packed with resort wear, swimwear, tricolor flag,- out door shoots in the extreme heat of peak summer. Evening gown, Saree photo shoots (taken indoors), more content footage was shot for their brand promotion, and rehearsals for the finale. There was hardly any time for sleep or eat or even restroom breaks. These were managed by 2 employees. They were also overworked and exhausted. We were yelled at, humiliated and it felt like we were bad students in detention as the organizers treated us very badly. 

On the day of the finale, it was utter chaos as as they had promised us gowns, hair & makeup & Accessories. 6 makeup artists & tailors arrived at 5pm for a total of 107 participants, while the show start time was supposed to be 6pm. The contestants family who had travelled all the way had to pay to watch the show. We ended up using our own gowns which we had luckily packed for emergencies & do our own hair and make up. The show started only around 8:45pm. During the first introduction round, we were initially scheduled to introduce ourselves for 50 seconds. In the backstage they said we could only announce our name & country we represented. 

There were 60 subtitles given out like consolation prices out of total 107 contestants. No transparency on the marking system was provided. 27 contestants qualified for the zonal round, which was not based on their over all performance but on which zone/country they represented. USA, CA, AUS, India, UAE etc. It was sad to witness truly deserving contestants not even qualify for the zonal round just cause there were more number of participants from their zone. While participants from zones which had lesser number of contestant were crowned zonal winners even though some were less deserving. It was not fair. Ideally the Best 27 immaterial of which country they represented should’ve been picked. The women who gave exemplary answers in the zonal question & answer round were not chosen by merit. It was all about money & promotion of the brand. In between, the chief guest left the show without even crowning as “she had a flight to catch”. From, The top 5 who crowned elements, one of them openly disclosed that she had paid a huge sum of money to the organizers. 

 According to reports, this is not an isolated incident. They have been successfully running beauty pageants across the world for 12 years. They were held in custody in 2016, have been found guilty of scamming contestants by charging exorbitant fees and making false promises.

It's time we put an end to this exploitation of vulnerable women who are seeking validation through beauty pageants. We demand stricter regulations on beauty pageants and harsh penalties for those found guilty of scamming contestants.

Please Sign this petition if you believe that no woman should be tricked or humiliated in the name of beauty pageants!