Who is Major Suman Gawani? Indian Army Major to be honoured with UN Award

Major Suman Gawani, an Indian Army officer and woman peacekeeper who has served with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019)

Gawani is a Military Observer, formerly deployed to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and had mentored over 230 UN Military Observers on conflict-related to sexual violence, and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the Mission’s team sites. She also trained South Sudanese government forces and helped them to launch their action plan on conflict-related sexual violence.

Major Suman Gawani works with the Army Signal Corps, she joined the army in 2011 after graduating from the Officers Training Academy.

Gawani is a native of Pokhar village in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal, completed her schooling in Uttarkashi and holds a Bachelor of Education from the Government Post Graduate College in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. She also has a telecommunication engineering degree from Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Mhow in Madhya Pradesh.

Major Gawani said, “Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all-genders perspective into our daily work and own it in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities”

This will be the first time that an Indian Peace Guard will be awarded this award. Gawani will be sharing her award with the Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on 29th May 2020 in an online conferring ceremony.