United Nations: India has said that more women in the armed forces can lead to greater protection for women who are disproportionately impacted by conflicts.
India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish said Wednesday (local time) that the dangers to women and girls from conflicts call for “greater representation of women in armed forces can greatly enhance” the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.
Stressing the urgency for action, he cited the report of Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict, which he said reported that “sexual violence has become a political weapon in a world increasingly marred by conflicts”, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ report that found that 750 million women and girls live within 50 kilometres of conflict.
“Verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence have more than doubled in a year”, he added.
While speaking at the Security Council’s open debate on WPS, he gave examples of two Indian Army majors serving as UN peacekeepers who created models for protecting and enhancing the security of women, both civilians and peacekeepers.
Major Mouiz Yaseen, the Force Ombudsperson and Welfare Officer in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), “built an accessible, confidential and victim-centred channel for informal grievance reporting” using technology, he said.
Besides training peacekeepers and observers, she also established a Force gender database for evidence-based, gender-responsive planning, he said.
Yaseen received the UN’s 2025 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award.
Major Sonia Devendra Nevaskar, who was a focal point for uniformed women and a member of the UNMISS Gender Task Force, built the UNPOL (United Nations Police) and Military Best Practice Networks to strengthen the WPS agenda. Harish said
The Centre for UN Peacekeeping in New Delhi holds regular training sessions for female peacekeepers”, he said.
India itself has systematically restructured its armed forces to enhance the role of women, he said.
Women get permanent commission as officers and have been inducted into all combat streams”, he said.
“This commitment has opened doors for women, from fighter pilots to military diplomats, and has increased the number of Indian women serving as UN peacekeepers”, he said.
“Women understand local grievances, build common ground and set priorities that go beyond ending conflict to include safety, health, education and other factors of development”, he said, emphasising the importance of women’s roles.
Women’s “empowerment is therefore the clearest path towards sustainable solutions”, he said.
Guterres’ report “rightly highlights that women’s representation in political leadership and decision-making roles is critical to take the WPS agenda forward and legislated gender quotas make a clear difference”, Harish said.
“We attest to its potency”, he said, and mentioned the advancement made through the Women’s Reservation Act of 2023, which extended the reserved one-third of seats in national and state legislatures as it had done in local government bodies.
