Winners to participate in Miss & Mister Deaf International, Europe & Asia pageants
The 10th annual Miss and Mister Deaf India 2023 beauty pageant was organised by the Office of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, the All India Deaf Arts and Cultural Society (AIDACS), and the Goa Association of the Deaf at Gera School (TGS) Auditorium, Old Goa in the presence of general secretary of Goa Association of the Deaf Prasad Joshi along with Muskan Shaikh and Josefina Fernandes.
There were 16 participants for Miss Deaf India, 24 participants for Mister Deaf India and 8 participants for Ms (Mrs) Deaf India, making it a total of 48 participants. The winner of Miss Deaf India was Vinita Shirodkar. Khushboo Patel was declared the first runner up and Sujatadevi Passi was the second runner up. Rajesh Bhanushali was the winner for Mister Deaf India. The first runner up was Harsh Chouhan and the second runner up was Parth Narula. The Ms Deaf lndia 2023 winner was Varsha G Sheetal was the first runner up and Sadiya Bandodkar was the second runner-up. Atisha Mapari won the award for Best Action Talent. The winners eventually participate in the Miss and Mister Deaf International, Europe, and Asia pageants.
The announcement of 10 special category prizes was done by the national president, Disabled Helpline India Pundit Vikas Sharma and the Purple ambassador for deaf and blind Zamir Dhale. The winners were decided based on 4 rounds: Casual, Talent, Ethnic and Formal. Judges made the decision keeping in mind all vitals needed to represent India at the international stage. The participants were trained by Abrar Naik, the director of AB Production Goa, a modelling agency based in Goa. The judges for the event were Mister Grand International 2022 Nehal Patil, and Miss Teen Goa 2022 Miss Sachi Sawant, along with Abrar Naik.
MLA of Poriem Constituency and chairman of Goa Forest Corporation Dr Deviya Rane and minister for social welfare Subhash Phal Dessai along with Guruprasad Pawaskar, director of social welfare Sandhya Kamat, secretary of office of the State Commissioner of PsWD Taha Haaziq, president of AIDACS Rajkumar Punjabi, and general secretary of AIDACS B Kalyan were present on the occasion.
“The participants were very happy to get such a great opportunity for the first time in life where they can showcase their talent. They want to be equally recognised as any other individuals without disability and they hope that with this event and with such a festival this can be possible,” said Prasad Joshi.
