On the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will present the 2025 Military Gender Advocate of the Year award to Major Abhilasha Barak of India for her exceptional contribution towards women's empowerment and gender sensitisation during her deployment with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. She is the commander of the Female Engagement Team (FET) under UNIFIL.
Major Abhilasha Barak will be the third Indian recipient of the prestigious honour, after Major Suman Gawani and Major Radhika Sen.
Gawani, who had served with the UN Mission in South Sudan, was honoured with the 2019 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. Sen, who served with United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), received the 2023 award.
Who is Major Abhilasha Barak?
"Congratulations to Major Abhilasha Barak & Inspector Stephanie Königs — 2025 UN Military Gender Advocate & Woman Police Officer of the Year! Major Barak's trailblazing work with @UNIFIL_ is a proud reflection of India's steadfast commitment to women's participation in UN peacekeeping," wrote the Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish.
Major Barak, who became the first woman officer to join the Army Aviation Corps as a combat aviator, graduated at a ceremony held at the Combat Army Aviation Training School in Nashik. She is widely recognised as the first woman combat helicopter pilot of the Indian Army.
A native of Haryana's Rohtak, she is the daughter of a retired colonel. She completed her graduation from Delhi Technological University in 2016. She completed her training at the Officers Training Academy, Chennai, in 2017.
International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers
The world commemorates the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers annually on May 29, paying homage to the fallen Blue Helmets who made the ultimate sacrifice whilst serving in UN peacekeeping missions across the world.
The UN Headquarters in New York will observe the day on June 5, when the Secretary-General will lay a wreath to honour the men and women who served in UN peacekeeping and lost their lives in the cause of peace, the UN said in a statement.
Guterres will then preside over a solemn ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal will be awarded posthumously to 68 military, police, and civilian peacekeepers who paid the ultimate price in the line of duty, including 59 who died last year.
India's legacy
India is the second-largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping.
It currently contributes more than 4,200 military and police personnel—including 155 women—to UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara.
Nearly 180 Indian peacekeepers have made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty—the highest number by far from any troop-contributing country.
