Following Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s proposal last year for an initiative on ‘women in United Nations Peacekeeping (UNPK) operations’ as part of expanding India-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) defence cooperation, India is set to conduct two initiatives for women personnel from South East Asia later this year.
Monday, March 29, marks the 75th U.N. Peacekeepers Day and India, one of the largest troop contributing nation to UNPK, currently has around 5,900 troops deployed in 12 U.N. Missions. This is the day when in 1948 the first U.N. peacekeeping mission, “UN Truce Supervision Organisation” began operations in Palestine.
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“One of the initiatives under the ‘India-ASEAN Initiative for women in UNPK operations’ includes conduct of tailor-made courses for women peacekeepers of ASEAN member-states at the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) in India this September. In all 20 peacekeepers, two from each country, would be trained,” a defence official said. The other is a ‘Table Top Exercise’ for women officers from ASEAN incorporating facets of UNPK challenges to be conducted in December, the official stated.
Mr. Singh had made these proposals among others at the inaugural India-ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting held in November 2022 at Siem Reap, Cambodia, to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of India-ASEAN relations.
India has contributed approximately 2,75,000 troops to peacekeeping missions so far and 159 Indian Army soldiers have lost their lives across the globe. The day was commemorated by paying homage to the fallen soldiers by laying a wreath at National War Memorial. Apart from the current deployment, India has pledged one Infantry Battalion Group and a Navy Corvette with Helicopter, as hard power and an Engineer Company and Signal Company as Force enablers, to be deployed at the behest of the U.N., the Army said in a statement.
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In 2016, India and the U.S. had begun an annual training programme for joint training of U.N. peacekeepers from African countries. Three iterations of the joint training were held before it was interrupted due to COVID-19 and a revamped programme was launched in 2021 of which two iterations have been held so far. Officials said that this joint training programme would continue in future.
Indian Army has established a CUNPK in New Delhi to impart training in peacekeeping operations and the Centre trains more than 12,000 troops every year. The centre also hosts foreign delegations as part of sharing best practices and also regularly dispatches mobile training teams to Friendly Foreign Countries as part of capacity building in the field of UNPK.
India has deployed Female Engagement Teams in United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, which is the second largest women contingent after Liberia. India has also deployed Women Military Police in United Nations Disengagement Observer Force and women staff officers and military observers in various missions.
Published - May 29, 2023 08:44 pm IST
