InfoSearched
A crowned medical student is turning her Miss World platform into a menstrual hygiene campaign reaching millions.
Manushi Chhillar was still a 20-year-old medical student when she was crowned Miss World 2017 in Sanya, China, becoming the sixth Indian woman to win the title and the first since Priyanka Chopra took it in 2000. Rather than treat the crown as a one-year victory lap, Chhillar has used the platform to push a cause she started building long before the pageant final: getting sanitary products and basic reproductive health education to women who have never had either.
- Chhillar’s initiative, ‘Project Shakti’, won the pageant’s ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ award and secured 180 million rupees (roughly $2.8 million) from the Haryana state government to supply free sanitary napkins in state-run schools.
- Before her international win, she had already visited around 20 villages across India, directly educating and treating more than 5,000 women on reproductive health and sanitary practices.
- During her reign as Miss World, Chhillar carried out a multi-nation tour, meeting political leaders across India and extending her hygiene and health outreach abroad.
From Village Visits To A Global Title
Chhillar’s advocacy didn’t start the moment she stepped onto the Miss World stage. The groundwork was laid on the ground, in villages, where she and volunteers worked directly with women who had limited or no access to sanitary products, treating and educating more than 5,000 of them before she ever competed internationally. That fieldwork became the backbone of Project Shakti, the campaign she pitched to Miss World judges as her contribution under the pageant’s long-running ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ category — and it won.
The Haryana government’s backing turned the project from a grassroots effort into a state-funded program, with 180 million rupees earmarked specifically for distributing free sanitary napkins in schools run by the state. For a country where India has long had one of the highest populations of women and girls lacking consistent access to menstrual hygiene products, that kind of institutional money changes what’s possible — moving the campaign from village-by-village outreach to a policy-level rollout.
Making The Case For Pageants With A Purpose
In her interview with the BBC, Chhillar framed the issue in blunt, practical terms rather than pageant-speak. She argued that access to menstrual hygiene products is essential for women to live without disruption to their daily lives, and that modern beauty contests earn their relevance by handing winners a global platform to push exactly this kind of public health issue.
“I feel that menstrual hygiene is very important because it allows women to lead an unobstructed life. My aim is to break the taboo surrounding menstruation and help girls access hygienic products.”
That framing matters because it’s the argument pageants like Miss World now lean on to justify their existence in an era when the format is regularly criticized as outdated. Chhillar’s case for the crown wasn’t just her poise on stage — it was Project Shakti, and the fact that Haryana’s government put real rupees behind it once she’d won.
Carrying The Title Beyond India’s Borders
Winning Miss World gave Chhillar a passport to rooms she wouldn’t otherwise have entered. Her reign included a multi-nation tour during which she met political leaders across India and pushed the menstrual hygiene and health message to audiences well outside the villages where the work began. It’s the same pattern seen with other beauty queens who’ve used their year with the crown to campaign on specific causes — Miss Jamaica on mental health, Miss South Africa on education — but Chhillar’s Project Shakti stands out for having already produced a measurable government commitment before her tour even wrapped.
Chhillar still has to finish her medical training once the crown passes to the next winner. But the 180-million-rupee Haryana commitment isn’t tied to her title — it’s now a standing program inside state-run schools, which means the sanitary napkins keep showing up in classrooms whether or not the world is still watching the girl who got them there.
Iran launches missiles into US military base in Iraq
‘We’ll starve to death if this continues’
New York City death toll spikes with revised count
Attorney speaks out after FBI arrests longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate
EXCLUSIVE: Giuliani reacts to impeachment inquiry after series of hearings