Indian peacekeeper Radhika Sen to receive UN’s gender advocate award

Indian Army peacekeeper Major Radhika Sen deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on a UN peacekeeping mission will receive the Military Gender Advocate of the Year award, the United Nations announced.

The award will honor Sen’s gender-sensitive peacekeeping efforts amid escalating conflict in North Kivu, where Sen’s troops engaged with affected communities, including women and girls, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who will present the medal at a ceremony in New York on Thursday.

Guterres congratulated her for her service, hailing her actions as “a true credit to the United Nations as a whole.”

Another Indian soldier, Naik Dhananjay Kumar Singh, who served with the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC, will be honoured posthumously with the Dag Hammarskjold medal during the solemn ceremony.

The Indian peacekeeper who lost his life serving under the UN flag is among over 60 military, police and civilian peacekeepers who will be honoured posthumously for their service and supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.

Sen expressed her gratitude and emphasized the significance of the award in acknowledging the collective efforts of peacekeepers operating in the volatile environment of the DRC.

“Gender-sensitive peacekeeping is everybody’s business – not just us, women. Peace begins with all of us in our beautiful diversity,” she said.

While spearheading mixed-gender engagement patrols and community activities, Sen also established community alert networks in North Kivu, that provided viral channels for community leaders, youth, and women to voice security and humanitarian concerns, that Sen and colleagues could then promptly address. 

“As a Platoon Commander, she fostered a safe space for men and women to operate together and quickly became a role model for both women and men peacekeepers,” said the UN in a statement.

“She also ensured that peacekeepers under her command engaged in a manner sensitive to gender and socio-cultural norms.”

Sen joins the ranks of Major Suman Gawani as the second Indian peacekeeper to receive this award. 

With 124 women military peacekeepers currently deployed, India ranks as the eleventh largest contributor of such personnel to the UN.