Daraa Patel is a gender justice and mental health advocate whose work advances the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). In 2018, she founded “You Are Not Alone,” an initiative that began as a mental health support network in India and evolved into a multi-dimensional platform addressing the structural causes of psychological distress, especially among women.

Within its initial phase, the initiative reached hundreds of individuals directly through crisis conversations, peer support, and referrals to mental health professionals, legal aid, and employment resources. Over time, it expanded through community meetups, digital advocacy, research documentation, and media engagement, indirectly impacting thousands of youth and women across urban and semi-urban communities. The work highlighted how forced marriages, domestic inequality, digital harassment, and biased media narratives contribute to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among women.

A major challenge faced was social stigma, resistance from families, and the absence of gender-sensitive systems—both offline and online. Daraa addressed this by launching initiatives focused on distinguishing clinical mental health conditions from socially induced distress, advocating for ethical media practices, and documenting failures of digital platforms in moderating gender-based hate, particularly in regional languages.

Her work has gained international recognition, contributing to global dialogues on gender, mental health, and digital democracy, and continues to inform policy, advocacy, and feminist movement-building across contexts.