Senior IAS officer Sonal Goyal was honored with the prestigious ‘Empowerment and Development Women Award’ in Bangkok, Thailand on the occasion of International Women’s Day2025. This honor has been given to her for doing excellent work in the field of women empowerment during her nearly one and a half decade of service so far. Many VIPs and VVIPs from around the world participated in this program organized by the United Peacekeepers Federal Council (UNPKFC) and United Nations Associations of Coachella Valley, USA (UNA-USA). These included UNPKFC Global President Dr. Afinita Chaichana, UNA-USA President Karen Cantrell, Princess Isabel, and many other policy makers, corporate leaders. Gender inclusion and women empowerment were discussed. In her speech, IAS Sonal Goyal talked about the schemes made by the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make women self-reliant, such as Lakhpati Didi, Drone Didi, etc. She said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Government of India is moving ahead from women’s development to women-led development. Posting some pictures of receiving the award on social media, Sonal Goyal wrote – This honour is not just my personal honour, but it is an honour for every girl who has the courage to dream. It is an honour for every woman who never gives up. It is an honour for every person who believes that equality is not an option, but an inevitability. Identity of Indian women leadership on the global stage Sonal Goyal, a 2008 batch IAS officer working as a secretary in the Tripura government, contributed a lot to the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign during her posting in Haryana. In 2010, during her tenure in Ambasa sub-division of Dhalai district of Tripura, Sonal Goyal took the initiative to set up Tripura’s first ‘all-women polling booth’. Apart from this, Sonal Goyal has also run programmes like Nandini, Mahari Laado, Umang Ek Pehal in Tripura and Soch Pe Dastak in Haryana. There was a lot of discussion about him in the media a few days ago when he was invited to a programme organised in the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament in London.
