Bengaluru: Major Swathi Shanthakumar, 31, an Indian Army officer from Bengaluru serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has won the UN Secretary-General’s Award 2025 in the Gender Category for her work on advancing women-led community engagement in conflict-affected areas.The award, announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, recognises Major Swathi’s project ‘Equal Partners, Lasting Peace’, which focused on strengthening gender-responsive peacekeeping and improving grassroots outreach in and around Malakal.Major Swathi currently leads India’s first all-woman military engagement team deployed to UNMISS, a role that placed her at the centre of community interaction in areas where women peacekeepers were largely unfamiliar.“When we first arrived, women were particularly reluctant to engage. They were not used to seeing women in uniform… During our first patrol, women were not speaking to us at all. Now they approach us on their own and share their stories,” Swathi said in a video message.Her initiative was shortlisted from nominations across UN peacekeeping missions worldwide and emerged as the top choice through a UN-wide voting process involving UN personnel globally.Traditionally, women peacekeepers have been assigned support roles within UN bases. Her team’s mandate, however, required extensive work outside the compound. Under her leadership, the team conducted foot, river and air patrols to reach remote and conflict-affected communities, distributing health kits and holding direct conversations with local women.Neethu A, a team member, describes Swathi as someone “who keeps up with her role very well, and keeps the team empowered”.The UN cited the team’s role in helping create a safer and more conducive environment for over 5,000 women, enabling greater participation and trust at the community level. Short-and-long-distance patrols, including air sorties to far-flung counties, were highlighted as key to improving outreach.Swathi’s father Shantha Kumar, who worked with ITC and retired three years ago, told TOI: “She is the first in our family to join the services. While we are all proud of her achievements, you will understand that as a father, her safety is paramount to me. She will be back in India in the first week of Feb. Her next assignment would be to train young cadets.”A resident of Lingarajapuram, Major Swathi did schooling at St Charles High School, PU at Christ College before moving onto New Horizon to complete engineering in electrical and electronics.Her mother, Rajamani, a retired head mistress of a govt school, told TOI: “She got placed in IBM through campus selection, where she worked for a year. It was there that she decided to join the Indian Army. We are extremely proud of her achievements. She is the eldest of our three daughters. Our second daughter Druthi is pursuing masters in France and the youngest, Maithri, is doing MBBS at Ramaiah College.”She then cleared SSB, completed training at OTA and joined the Indian Army’s Corps of Electronics & Mechanical Engineers. She is with the 3rd Battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (3 JAK Rif) at present.
