Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 12: Major Swathi Shantha Kumar, a 31-year-old Army officer from Bengaluru serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has been conferred the prestigious UN Secretary-General’s Award 2025 for her project titled ‘Equal Partners, Lasting Peace’.

The award, announced by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Sunday, recognises Major Swathi’s strategic operations that created a secure environment for nearly 5,000 women, enabling them to move freely and actively participate in local peace dialogues in conflict-affected regions of South Sudan.

Major Swathi leads an Indian Engagement Team, which has played a crucial role in strengthening grassroots-level security and building community confidence. Her project emerged as the winner in the ‘Gender Category’ following a highly competitive UN-wide voting process involving personnel from peacekeeping missions across the globe.

Under her command, the Indian contingent carried out extensive short- and long-range patrols, including integrated riverine patrols and dynamic air patrols, reaching some of the most remote and violence-hit counties of South Sudan. By deploying female peacekeepers in frontline operational roles, the initiative set a new benchmark for gender parity in international peacekeeping missions.

Addressing the occasion, secretary-general Antonio Guterres lauded the initiative for significantly strengthening the gender-inclusive approach of UNMISS. The project was shortlisted from a large pool of nominations received from various UN peacekeeping missions and agencies worldwide.

Major Swathi’s work has been widely praised not only for enhancing physical security but also for building lasting trust between peacekeepers and local communities in a region long affected by instability.

Expressing her pride, Swathi’s mother Rajamani, a retired headmistress, said she was delighted that her daughter’s efforts had received global recognition. “Swathi is the eldest of my three daughters and is very brave. She completed her training at the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, in 2018,” she said.

“She served as a lieutenant in Kalimpong, West Bengal, for two years, followed by two years as a captain in Karu village in Ladakh’s Leh district. She then spent a year in Gujarat before being deployed to South Sudan,” Rajamani added.

Major Swathi completed most of her education in Bengaluru, and her family currently resides in Lingarajapuram, Bengaluru.