On 23 May 2026 the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations announced that Major Abhilasha Barak of the Indian Army will be conferred the prestigious 2025 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. Major Barak is recognised for her outstanding outreach and community engagement activities for women and adolescent girls and gender sensitization training for peacekeepers. She is serving with the Indian Battalion as the Commander of the Female Engagement Team FET in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNIFIL. Major Abhilasha is also the first woman combat helicopter pilot of the Indian Army an Aviation Corps officer commissioned from Officers Training Academy Chennai who became part of the Army Aviation Corps in 2022. The UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award has been presented annually since 2016 to a military peacekeeper male or female who has shown outstanding commitment and leadership in promoting the principles of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security. She is the third Indian recipient of the award after Major Suman Gawani who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan and received the award in 2019 and Major Radhika Sen who served with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo MONUSCO and received the award in 2024. Major Abhilasha Barak will be honoured at the United Nations headquarters in New York when the world body commemorates the International Day of UN Peacekeepers observed annually on 29 May. India currently is the second largest contributor to UN Peacekeeping operations and has lost over 180 peacekeepers in service the highest among contributing nations.