Glammonn Mrs India 2022 Dr Sonal Mahalwar: ‘Once I got married, I realised that such platforms can be used for greater good

One of India’s leading radiologist, Dr Sonal Mahalwar, emerged as an inspiration to millions of women across the country as she was crowned Glammonn Mrs India 2022 in the sixth edition of the pageant held in Goa recently. Sonal currently works as senior consultant radiologist in Gurgaon and has several credentials to her name in her repertoire.

A proud mother of two, Sonal got married in 2013 and is now separated from her husband. Ask about her family’s reaction to her decision of entering into the pageant and she shares, “My family has been supportive in my decision of undertaking the journey to Mrs India pageant. During the initial days it was difficult for me to convince them, but over a period of time, my parents could circle around my goals and understood that this contest is not merely a ramp show or just for glamour alone for me. They also came around the thought of me using this contest as a platform to raise my voice against societal issues like women empowerment and raising funds for my further research on artificial intelligence in the field of healthcare.”

But ask her why she decided to join the pageant world after her marriage and not before it, and she has a very introspective response to it. She says, “Before I got married I wanted to participate in a pageant for the sake of winning a title and have a tag of being “Miss India”. However once I got married and got exposure to the external world, without the security of my known ones, I realised that such platforms can be used for greater good. Marriage for me brought about a change where I started to see society as an area where there was so much to be done yet so little awareness was existent.”

And that’s what she wants to use her title for. “I want to use the Mrs India platform to raise my voice and increase awareness around topics like Protection of Women against Domestic Violence, vaccine awareness and importance of self-examination for early detection against cancer. I feel that such awareness and knowledge propagation will assist in making a society a better place to live in,” she insists.