Miss India Worldwide seeks to tackle depression among teens, young adults

Reigning Miss India Guyana, 20-year-old Aruna Sukhdeo, who won the international title and became Miss India Worldwide 2023 earlier last month, aims to use her platform to help young adults and teenagers to conquer their depression.
During an interview with this publication on Sunday, she opened up about her own experience with depression and shared that she will be using her platforms to bring more awareness to the issue.
“The next step for me would be to use that platform to help others. So, my platform that I had in the pageant since the local leg here in Guyana was mental health, specifically depression because that is something that I struggled with back in high school. And just coming out of high school, I also felt a bit depressed because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life as yet,” she said, adding that while she understands that not everyone knows what they want to do at such a young age, she battled with the decision.
“…not a lot of persons are strong enough to conquer depression, some of them turn to suicide and that really can harm our future generations,” Sukhdeo told this publication.

She added that she wants to create a programme that can be implemented in workplaces and schools to give people support, noting that there is a need for such platforms to be implemented so young people can have adequate information at their disposal.
“So, I want to be able to create a programme that I can use in the workplace or even in schools to tell young people that ‘Hey, you are not alone, we can get through with this step by step, you don’t have to feel depressed, you don’t have to have those thoughts of suicide, we’re here to help you’. Also, to create a programme, hopefully, where we can use arts and music as well so that they can work through that depression. Because for me, when I was depressed, music was the one thing that was there to help me. So, if we can have a programme in schools and in the work environment to help young adults and teenagers conquer their depression, that would be very well,” the ambitious young woman added.

Pageantry journey
Being the only child of Bonita Baijnauth and Narhootam Sukhdeo, Sukhdeo, who lives in Bladen Hall on the East Coast of Demerara, has always competed in the pageant segments of school events since she was a young girl in nursery school.
According to Aruna, pageantry was something she always wanted to do, to create a platform to use her voice to help others as well as showcase her country.
“It’s just something that I wanted to do, to use it to create a platform for myself because I feel like sometimes you can say that you will influence people but if you don’t have a platform for yourself no one is really going to…hear what you’re saying. And pageantry was something that I saw as an initiative, that I can create a platform to use that voice to help others. But not just to help others but to put my country in the spotlight as well.”
There are challenges throughout all walks of life, according to Sukhdeo, though she is quite up to par with her time management skills, between working and studying, pageantry was quite challenging for her to balance given that anything could happen at any given time.
“With pageantry on the plate, you never know when things can come up, so I remember before the local pageant here in Guyana which was held on May 5, the day before I had one of my final exams and it was kind of a struggle for me because I remember calling my teacher and saying “sir is it possible that I can do this exam early because… I have pageant practice” and the answer was no because the timings was already set. So, it was a challenge trying to balance time, I even wanted to quit at one point but I had to constantly remind myself that ‘Aruna, this is something that you want and if you really want it, you should go for it’,” the determined young women explained.
In the end, she said, winning both the local and international titles was a testament to her hard work, adding that it was a very rewarding experience for her.
“So, the rewarding moment for me was when I actually won, that I knew all my efforts weren’t in vain. Even if I didn’t cop that crown, I know it was the experience that I was taking away with me, so all in all, while it was challenging, I am forever grateful for the experience and I am forever grateful for the platform that was provided to me that I can use in the future to come,” a humble Sukhdeo shared.

International crown
Speaking on her experience vying for the international title as Miss India Worldwide 2023, Sukhdeo recalled having to face one of her biggest fears whilst travelling to India. She noted too that her experience there was quite different from the one she had imagined.
“So, it was my first time travelling and I am scared of heights. I feel like I’ve conquered one of my fears right there and then so that is an experience in itself before even reaching the international stage. When I got there it was a whole different view, the way I saw India and what I thought an international pageant was, it was different, and I have made so many amazing friends. The girls there are so phenomenal, they all brought something to share to the table. It can be intimidating at times because you know, that country is bringing their best to compete against you but being in that room with those phenomenal girls, hearing their thoughts, seeing what they bring to the table, it was a great experience,” she divulged.
The final-year Business Economics student at the University of Guyana shared that her mother is her biggest motivation and her drive for helping others is her major source of motivation.
“I wanted a platform where I could use my voice to help others and if I’m about to quit at something or if I want to try something new, I will tell myself, ‘Is this going to help you use that voice to help people, or how good is this platform for you?’. And apart from pageantry being my passion now, my other passion is music.”
Sukhdeo added that some of her other passions lie in writing music which she hopes to release one day.
“Before pageantry, I always wanted to find something that’s going to help me share a message to the world and I found out that music is one way that you could share that message which Is why I started to write my own, in hopes of releasing those songs one day,” she explained.

Franchise owner
Meanwhile, the franchise owner, Hashim Alli, told this publication that since acquiring the pageant in 2018 a lot was invested to get it to where it is today. He boasted that Aruna being the second Guyanese to acquire this title in 30 years has done wonders for not only herself, but for the country as well.
He noted that this is not a reflection of himself or his wife, but rather a reflection of Guyanese claiming a place in the world.
“Aruna’s success story is everyone’s success story and there can be many more beauties and having our young ladies enter pageantry and having them take that leap of faith, it’s the hardest process,” Alli added.
There will be a victory reception held in honour of the three Guyanese beauty queens who represented the country on the international stage. The reception will be hosted at the Ramada Princess Hotel on July 22 and tickets costs $10,000 each. (Tassia Dickenson)