Mumbai: Manasa Varanasi, an engineer from Telangana was crowned Miss India World 2020 February 10, 2021, at an event in Mumbai.
While Manika Sheokand became Miss Grand India 2020, Manya Singh went on to become Miss India 2020 runners-up.
Manya Singh is a daughter of a rickshaw driver from Uttar Pradesh. This victory is special for them because it was achieved after many sleepless nights and hard work. Manya had earlier opened up about the struggles she faced on the road to success, saying that she hoped to inspire others by using the platform provided by Miss India to talk about her journey.
Manya, born in Kushinagar, has stated in one of her posts that she grew up in difficult conditions, spent nights without food and walked for miles to save just a few bucks. She yearned for the books and clothes she wanted to buy. Her fate was probably never in her favor.
Her parents mortgaged whatever little jewellery they had to pay Manya’s exam fee. “She believes that education is the strongest weapon one can have with themselves at all times,” Miss India’s official Instagram handle said about Manya Singh in a post shared last month.
“Doted on by her mother, she has won the Best Student award during her HSC. She has struggled a lot in life till date, from not being able to pay her school fees, not being able to afford books and being neglected by her classmates for being an auto driver’s daughter,” the post further revealed.
The Miss India pageant is organised by Femina, a women’s magazine published by The Times Group.