Miss Arunachal 2017 pageant to have quotas for 3 tribes with China roots

Come September, beauty queens in Arunachal Pradesh will have to contend with a quota system.

Organisers of the 10th Miss Arunachal beauty pageant have introduced a special quota for women belonging to three underprivileged tribes – Lisu, Nah and Puroik -- with roots in China.This comes amid mounting tensions between India and China over a border dispute in Bhutan’s Doklam.

The audition for Miss Arunachal 2017 is scheduled from September 10 to October 15 across the state.

“The auditions will be held across the state next month. But contestants from the three tribes will be given direct entry for the contest,” Tai Roket, the in-charge of the pageant, said.

The heads of the apex body of each of these communities have been asked to send representatives for the contest, he added.

“Our objective is not only to celebrate physical beauty but also inner beauty, raise self-esteem of girls from remote areas and prepare them to face the world confidently,” Kipa Niba, the pageant’s organising secretary told HT from state capital Itanagar.

The quota system is not the only first for Miss Arunachal contest that Arunachal Guild for Cultural Integration is organising. Participation comes with a two-point rider – each contestant must have a minimum height of 5.2 ft and must have passed class 12. Among the older conditions is 18 years as minimum age for participation.

“Lisu, Nah and Puroik are minority tribes with a history of deprivation, and young women from these communities deserve to showcase their beauty and talent, even with a certain degree of reservation,” Niba added.

A majority of the Lisu people live in China, Myanmar and Thailand. About 5,000 of them inhabit Changlang district of Arunachal.

Considered foreigners earlier, the Lisus were evicted from a cluster of villages in Changlang’s Vijaynagar circle by the Assam Rifles in 1964. They were derecognised as Indians in 1980 but got back their citizenship in 1994.

The Buddhism-practising Nah people inhabit five villages close to the Tibet border in Taksing circle of Upper Subansiri district. The circle is a day’s walk from the nearest place with a semblance of a road.

Remoteness has not been an issue for the Purioks, who were once considered a slave tribe associated with the numerically stronger Nyishi community. The Puroik population is estimated to be more than 10,000, and they are found in more than 50 villages of districts such as Kurung Kumey, East Kameng and Papum Pare.