For starting Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ to help and empower rural women, child development and generating livelihoods, well known philanthropist Neeti Goel was felicitated on Friday at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in the esteem presence of Nirmala Sitaraman, Finance Minister of India.

Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ is an initiative started mainly for the self-defence of rural women, providing them with livelihoods and overall development of under nourished children which was initiated in many parts of Uttar Pradesh. Notably, under Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ a group of 25 women is formed in each village to protect women who are mainly victims of domestic violence. Through this initiative women’s are also made aware of their fundamental rights.

Womens Director’s Conclave was held yesterday at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai where both philanthropist Neeti Goel and Nidarshana Gowani from Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ were felicitated in the presence of Finance Minister of India.

After being felicitated during the conclave, an overwhelmed Neeti Goel said, “I don’t exactly know what to say right now. I am so touched by this honour. We started this initiative during the pandemic. The cause of women empowerment is very dear to me. Hence, we thought of doing something for women empowerment living in rural areas. These are the women who are the worst kind of sufferers of domestic violence from their abusive husbands and men who indulge in violence under the influence of various kinds of drugs and mistreat their women on various levels.”

Interestingly, Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ is a self-help group of 25 women who are trained to fight against domestic violence and abusive men in the villages. Under ‘Green Army’ women are not only made aware of their basic and fundamental rights but they are also taught to fight for their own rights and stand against injustice meted out to them on a daily basis.

Soon, in one village Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ helped in bringing the necessary changes. So the word quickly spread and Neeti Goel’s team started getting calls from other nearby villages to start a smilar kind of army there too. Neeti Goel says, “We began establishing Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ from one village to another. Now it has spread its wings in more than 250 villages of Uttar Pradesh and currently it has women army of more than 1800 safe-gaurding their rights in their villages”.

After the huge success of Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ in many parts of rural villages of Uttar Pradesh, Neeti Goel and her passionate team of volunteers are now trying to extent this project into Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand and other states too.

A very well known philanthropist and daughter of late entrepreneur SK Gupta, Neeti Goyal is a restaurateur and runs many famous restaurants in and around Mumbai. During pandemic, she co-founded and started an initiative called ‘Khana Chahiye’ through which she with the help of her NGO helped lakhs of people and provided fresh meals to the hungry people on a daily basis. She also started an initiative called ‘Ghar Bhejo’ through which she helped 1.5 lakh migrant workers in reaching their homes safely by buses, trains and even flights.

From providing oxygen cylinders, to food and shelter and making arrangements for migrant workers to reach their destination safely, there were many tasks which Neeti Goyal took upon herself. And one of them is formation of Swayambhu’s ‘Green Army’ in many rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.