Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi Goyal is the Founder and Executive Director of the National award winning non profit Rising Flame. An activist, researcher, trainer, and artist, her work is committed towards fostering inclusion of women, youth and persons with disabilities within India and globally. In the past 15 years of her work, she has reached disabled and nondisabled persons across 4 continents and over 35 countries.

She has influenced national and global disability rights and gender policies, authored groundbreaking research and publications, and led important transformations through trainings and campaigns.

She has achieved groundbreaking success through her leadership and advisory roles across major women’s rights, human rights, multilateral and government projects and initiatives. She has been the former global advisor to UN Women’s Executive Director New York, has held an advisory board position of Dutch ministry’s philanthropic project Voice, and has been the youngest and the only disabled president of globally renowned women rights organisation Association for Women’s rights in Development (AWID). In 2023, she was invited by the Government of Goa to be the Ambassador for Purple Fest 2023, the leading disability fest in India.

She was also the youngest member of the Civil 20 steering committee during India’s G20 Presidency and led disability inclusion track from India and 20+ countries. She currently sits on the core group of NHRC India, is on the diversity and inclusion task force of FICCI, and is on the accessible cinema committee of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Nidhi has broken many glass ceilings—she is India’s first female disabled stand up comedian using humour to challenge notions around gender and disability and has performed in over 5 countries.