Know Our Team – Working on Field

Jyoti Goyal is the Program and Outreach Officer at Delhi. Post lockdown, her field visits have turned to webinars on Zoom but she revisits some of her experiences from field in this Know Our Team edition!

After doing graduation in computers, I decided to shift to social service as I really like to work with people and for people. My work on women issues has given me huge experience. During my field visits, I happen to interact with many women and hear numerous stories that remain unheard whether it’s sexual violence or domestic abuse. I have been to villages of Haryana and Jharkhand and met many women there. When in Delhi, I usually interact with female neighbours, colleagues etc. Working in Women-oriented NGOs has given me space to talk about my personal life. We talk, we laugh, we share and we console.

I work with communities, Partner NGOs and Volunteers in Delhi to spread awareness about Gender-based Violence and break the silence around it. I love talking to young women about the issue, organizing fun activities and engaging with them. They also feel nice that there is someone to spend time with on weekends.

As part of my work in Safecity, I visited a community in Delhi where people were so hesitant to talk about sexual harassment. This challenge became an opportunity to understand the issue myself and address it with  more empathy.

Once, a girl shared a narrative of sexual harassment with me. She was harassed by her own brother for almost two years as a child. She tried to share this with her mother but she didn’t listen. Still living with her family and her brother, it is really painful for her to see him daily. Imagine living in the same house with your accused.

Another woman shared incidents of domestic abuse in her marital life. Her husband had not been earning and it was her who was running the family and feeding her kids for years. The husband is abusive and an alcoholic. She told me her life after marriage is such she had never imagined.

There are many unheard stories of women which I keep coming across. I feel women are so strong to bear so much and they inspire strength in me too. All the hurdles we have faced in our life because of our gender have instead made us all badass feminists.