Our Founder and Executive Director Nidhi Goyal was invited to speak on a distinguished panel at a half-day policy dialogue, “Catalysing Change: Financing and Partnerships for Gender Transformative Action for SDGs,” organised by SAHAJ, UN Women and the Feminist Policy Collective on November 22, 2025. The hybrid event took place at the UN House in New Delhi with 53 persons in attendance.
Nidhi spoke at the panel, “India’s Progress Towards SDGs from a Gender Perspective”, which she joined virtually. She was joined by fellow panelists: Renu Khanna, Founder, Trustee, SAHAJ; Nileena Suresh, Researcher, Data for India; Aditi Anand, National Coordinator, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan. Dr. Ravi Verma, Executive Director, ICRW was the Chairperson for this panel.
Nidhi highlighted the urgent need to center women and girls with disabilities in India’s SDG agenda, noting that their continued invisibility in mainstream gender and development discourse drives deep inequalities across education, skills, economic participation, and health and wellbeing. She emphasised that gendered health barriers, policy gaps, weak implementation, and inaccessible justice and support systems, including One-Stop Crisis Centres, further undermine autonomy and leave violence against women with disabilities underreported and inadequately addressed.
She called for intersectional data, inclusive policies, accessible public services, and strengthened legal protections to ensure that women and girls with disabilities are not left behind. Meaningful progress on the SDGs, she concluded, demands that their rights, voices, and lived experiences move from the margins to the centre of policymaking.