Nishta Dudeja, the first Indian model to win the crown of, Miss Deaf Asia, represented Delhi at the 18th edition of AIDACS Miss and Mister Deaf World Pageant held in Prague, Czech Republic.
The 26-year-old Haraya girl is a commerce graduate from Sri Venkateswara College of Delhi and Masters in Economics from Mithibai College, Mumbai.
After graduation, Dudeja did an internship at UNESCO in Delhi where she got the opportunity to handle social media and other assignments to publicize the activities undertaken by UNESCO. This participation helped her to deal with the challenges faced by disabled persons at the workplace. Later she was invited by UNESCO, Delhi as the guest of honor at the celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Nishtha Dudeja was born hearing impaired with 100% hearing loss in both ears, which got diagnosed when she was 3 years old. Sooner she started taking speech therapy and on the advice of a speech therapist, she was sent to a normal school rather than a special school for the deaf, so that she could learn how to speak.
Nishtha started playing Judo at the age of 7, later after 5 years she shifted to Tennis. She continued playing tennis for 10 years and participated in many tournaments like AITA, ITF, ATT, etc.
Not only this, but she also represented India at the International Games, 3 times. The last match which she played was in 2017, Deaflympics in Turkey(Europe), then, unfortunately, she had to retire due to a jaw injury which happened in 2016.
In an interview, Nishtha said, “I want to thank my parents for their consistent support who were always there to help me. Now I want to help the deprived people even at the cost of my comfort. I believe that differently-abled people don’t need pity. They only deserve equal opportunities to prove themselves”.
She won the crown of the Miss Deaf India pageant in 2018 and then later was nominated to participate in the Miss Deaf World pageant 2018.
Later on 3rd December 2018 i.e. International Day of Persons with Disabilities, she was awarded the National Role Model by Honble Vice President of India.
Dudeja has been creating awareness about hearing loss and all the available assistive technology and speech therapy.
In an interview, she was asked about the changes she would like to see in the post-COVID-19 society to which she mentioned about creating a more inclusive society by providing more ramps where needed, by developing more wheelchair-friendly cars. She also talked about routine medical services which are inaccessible by persons with disabilities and a lot more.
Everyone talks about inclusivity but not everyone is working towards the same, so in order to make one I, You, and everyone around us has to take a step towards it.
