“Trailblazer for Peace: Major Radhika Sen Honored with 2023 Military Gender Advocate Award!”

Indian Army Major Radhika Sen has been selected to receive the 2023 Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. The award recognizes her advocacy for women and girls while serving as a peacekeeper. Congratulating her, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called her a true leader and role model. He stated that her service is a true credit to the United Nations as a whole. The Spokesperson for Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, announced that Guterres will present Sen with the award on Thursday, which is observed as the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. The award acknowledges the efforts of a military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of the 2000 Security Council resolution, which calls for protecting women and girls from conflict-related sexual violence and sets gender-related responsibilities for the UN.

According to the UN, Sen served with the Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), where she helped create the Community Alert Networks in North Kivu. This platform brought together community leaders, young people, and women to voice their security and humanitarian concerns.

Sen is the second Indian peacekeeper to receive this honor, following Major Suman Gawani, who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan and received the award in 2019. Hailing from Himachal Pradesh, Sen is a biotech engineer who was studying for a master’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay when she decided to join the Army. She was assigned to MONUSCO in 2023 as the Engagement Platoon Commander with the Indian Rapid Deployment Battalion and completed her tenure in April 2024.

Of the 6,063 Indian personnel in UN peacekeeping operations, 1,954 serve with MONUSCO, 32 of them women.