Manipur hosts beauty pageant

Twenty charming young women exuding confidence and oomph walked the ramp at the 'Miss Sakhenbi Ningol Contest', a beauty pageant held at Imphal on Friday.
Incidentally, the contest was hosted in connection with the Ningol Chakkouba Festival under the auspices of the Young Women Help Organisation, a voluntary forum.
The prime objective of 'Miss Sakhenbi Ningol Contest' at the Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre was to infuse an element of confidence and enhance the status of the women in the society.
"We are organising this contest in order to preserve the beautiful traditional costumes in connection with the Ningol Chakkouba Festival," said Arambam Robita Devi, Secretary of Young Women Help Organisation.
The aspiring beauties contested for the coveted title of Miss Sakhenbi Ningol-2011.
The contest was divided into four rounds of introductory, casual, traditional and questions and answers.
"We want to upgrade the status of women. I participated in this contest to promote the cause. I'm very happy and I thought that I would never get the opportunity to showcase my talent but I've got one through this contest," said Sobharani Devi, a contestant.
Another contestant, Salina Thoudam, said such contests and said that it was organised to collect funds especially to construct a home for the destitute womenfolk, who are the victims of militancy .
"The profit from the contest is going to help the women who have suffered a lot. The organisation is planning to build a home for the women who are destitute. I strongly support the organisation's aim. The aim is also to select a perfect woman and I believe that I'm one of them," said Thoudam.
In the last and final round, Chingakham Sanahanbi won the Miss Sakhenbi Ningol title while Rojiya and Sonia were the first and second runners up respectively.