(New Delhi) “I am a fashion designer and I am trying to establish my own brand. It is very hard to establish your own business in today’s world where everything is quite expensive. Designing is not just limited to creativity. It needs a lot of marketing and business acumen to promote your product. We are using the rich fabric of India which is completely hand woven by cottage industry workers. Through my brand, I try to promote fair trade for weavers and ensure they get regular work and a fair price. I help them incorporate modern designs in the traditional handicraft. I feel very strongly that Indian handicrafts should be kept alive and not get lost in western fashion. 
I am also trying to help transgender community through my business. They have been denied the most basic rights for a long time. I am planning to have photo shoots with models from the transgender community and help them through my business. 
A friend of mine had participated in Mrs India contest and she suggested that I should participate. Even my husband was quite supportive. I felt it was a good chance to promote the social causes that I already worked for.  As part of the contest requirement, I further got an opportunity to work with an NGO on a project under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. I got a chance to educate underprivileged children about basic hygiene and spend time with them. I also got a chance to spread awareness about violence against women. We always need an opportunity to challenge ourselves and see how far you can push yourself. I was one of the finalists in the contest and won the title of Mrs India Creative. I further went on to win Miss Asia Universe first runner up. 

I feel life is a battle and everyone is busy fighting their own battles. I thank God even for my bad experiences that I had to go through. I am wiser now. There is no end to learning; you are always growing as a person.”

(New Delhi) “I am a practicing Supreme Court lawyer. I take up any kind of case that I am offered. I also handle pro bono human rights cases. Currently, my cases range from giving legal assistance to people from North East India trying to assimilate in Delhi to helping a student from Other Backward Classes (OBC) category to get admission in JNU, cases of sexual harassment etc. to name a few. I also work with an organisation that reunites runaway children or abused children with their families. Recently, I accompanied two girls in Bihar and in Mumbai to reunite with their respective families. We walked miles through fields in remote area of Samastipur District in Bihar to reunite the girl and found her family living in abject poverty.  I take these situations as a challenge to do more. 
I come from a conservative, middle class family in a small town in Bihar. I studied in UP and now I am practicing law independently in Delhi. In the last 17½ years of my practice, I have faced a lot of rigorous challenges. So every case that I win is a unique experience and a special achievement for me.
People often tell me that the law and order situation in Bihar is bad. But now I feel that I must go back to my soil, Bihar. I want to help children there who have a lot of potential but have not gotten any opportunity to build their life or career. I may join politics to reach out to larger section of the society but that’s my long term plan. At the end of the day, I want to help as many people as I can.” 


(New Delhi) “From the beginning we knew that something was different about our first born son. But we realised it with certainty when he started going to play-school in Gorakhpur. He was able to respond verbally to everything but he was not able to do well while writing. We were advised to take our son to Delhi as our town was not equipped to deal with such cases. It was a good decision since people around me in Gorakhpur constantly told me that my son was “mad” and it was emotionally very difficult for me to hear it. So we moved to Delhi permanently and started to consult one doctor after another; from there my son’s real struggle began.
He had squint eyes and problems in walking as well. He was treated by eye specialists and physiotherapists. He received help from psychologists and also received classes from a special tutor who taught him to hold a pencil. After a while, things started getting better and he started going to regular school. But when he reached class 5, he had a bad teacher who showed no patience with my son. My son became very quiet. When my husband and I tried to discus the matter with the teacher, the teacher rudely told us that she cannot deal with children like my son. So we took him out of that school and sent him to another school for vocational training. The class teacher in his new school was very supportive; on her suggestion we went to a spastic society where the tutors helped and motivated us a lot. My son cleared his class 10th exams through open boards and he will finish his class 12th exams soon. For last one year he has also been working at a cafe where he takes order through computer and is very efficient. 
People stare at us and my son has to hear comments like “are you mad?” or “are you blind?” from complete strangers on the street. People tell me, “What is the need to worry about your child when he doesn’t have brains?”. This really hurts me a lot. I know my son has brains. Some people refuse to understand that my child is special to me because these children are very sensitive and more caring than others. For instance, if I have a headache, my son will come and ask time and again if he can massage my head, or request that I eat something. These are the things that other people can’t see.

Earlier, I used to get angry and cry a lot because people in our society think it’s a curse to have special children. There is no acceptance that he is also a person. He is different but he has a brain and he can use it but takes a little more time to do things. Our society can be really cruel; I guess they need knowledge.” 


(New Delhi) “I have been working in the development sector for 19 years with marginalized section of the society including women, children and disabled people. I am a trained social worker and a lawyer and fighting for the rights of others is my passion. I cannot tolerate injustice being done to anyone including me. I believe if I cannot fight for my own rights, I will never be able to fight for others. This spirit keeps me moving and sometimes makes me angry in situations beyond my control. I wish I was a much calmer person but at the same time I would also never want the fire inside me to die. My parents are my strength, coming from a Muslim family and unlike rudimentary belief, they gave me a lot of freedom to choose and decide what I wanted. I am an independent woman and it’s because of them.

My two pets Bebo and Sultan are love of my life and my life would be meaningless without them. I have learnt to be always happy with small things in life and to forget all the sorrows that life keeps throwing. I receive unconditional and eternal love from them. I believe they are going to meet me after this life also to stay together ever after.” 
(New Delhi) “I am a beautician. I have been working for the last 18 years. When I was very young, my mother arranged for some money so that I could learn the work at a local beauty salon. My skills improved and I started getting my own clients. 
At the age of 16, I fell in love and got married against everyones’ wishes. One day when my husband was not home, my in-laws threw me out of the house because they were unhappy that they did not get any dowry. I literally had to live on the street at that time as my parents had severed all ties with me. My father never spoke to me after my marriage, and for many years, he forbade everyone in the family to talk to me. When I left my in-laws’ house, I had nothing with me at all. There was no way to get in touch with my husband as during those days there were no mobile phones. I felt I had only two options: die or work. I chose to work. 
During that time, I would spend the days working, and at night, sleep at a client’s place. I started looking for a place to live but nobody wanted to rent a flat to a young girl. So I had to tell landlords that my husband was out of town temporarily and would join me later. Somehow, I finally found a place to stay.
One-and-a half months later, my husband and I found each other. We started living in the rented accommodation and very soon I conceived. My husband never helped me financially as he gave all his earnings to his parents. I had to work till the day before delivery of the baby because I needed money for the baby too. I had to start working again after only 6 days from the delivery. After all these years I am still independent running my household with my own income. I have also been able to build my house with my own savings.
I really enjoy my work. All my clients are good people. They recommended me to one another and I built a long list of clients. I enrolled myself to learn make-up and other beauty courses from one of the best institutes in India, while I was still working full-time. I have not stopped learning new techniques.
A few years ago I found out that a couple, a distant relative, died in an accident. None of their relatives wanted to keep the couples’ children. At the time, the daughter was 11 years old, and the son was 4 years old. So I brought them home and got them admitted into good schools. My youngest son doesn’t know that he is not my biological child. They have been living with me for 4-5 years. Now things have finally settled down for me. My children are very supportive. They all are a bit naughty but that’s all fun.
I started with Rs. 300 as my first pay and I didn’t even own a needle. My in-laws, who now live with me, are dependent on me. They know that I have raised my family and built a home single-handedly. My father (he is no more now) never spoke to me after my wedding but it always lifts my spirits when people tell me that my father always praised me in front of other people. He used to tell them that I was his the most hard-working child and that I bought a house with my own hard-earned money.”

(New Delhi) “I am a Political Science student. I like reading and dancing. College changes your hobbies. In college, you have lots of things to do such as working for festivals and other events. You have an active social life. 

My plans for the future are a little sketchy. If it were up to me, then I would like to become a lawyer and work for the rights of refugees. If it were up to my parents, they would want me to be an IAS/IPS officer.”

(New Delhi) “My husband and in-laws started troubling me within 3-4 days of the wedding. My husband used to hit me while my in-laws used to taunt me that the dowry my family gave was neither sufficient nor to their taste. They complained that a motorcycle was not given in the dowry. I was thrown out of the house during my pregnancy. My relatives tried talking to my in-laws to settle the matter. I also went to an NGO for trying a reconciliation with my husband. If someone tried to counsel them, they responded that they were the boy’s family, and so they would not give in. My son is now two and a half years old but they have never ever asked after the child.”