 Board has 3-0 for control, Mr. Jawah. Board has 3-0 for control. What is the latest state? In nearly 50 conflict zones around the world, more than one and a half billion people live under the threat of violence. In many of these places, the primary enforcers of order are not police officers or government soldiers, but the blue-helmeted troops of the United Nations. With more than 78,000 soldiers and 25,000 civilians across 14 countries, UN peacekeepers make up the second-largest military force deployed abroad. India completes 70 successful years of its peacekeeping operations in 2020. The UN Entering Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was established in 1978 in response to a surge in violence on the border between Israel and Lebanon. A coastal road massacre which took place on 11th of March 1978. In response to this coastal road massacre, Israel launched an armed invasion into Lebanon that was on 14th of March 1978. India joined UNIFIL as a troop contributing country 20 years later in 1998. The area in which the in-bat is deployed is strategically important, it is sensitive and it is challenging. Strategically important because we are at the tri-junction of three countries, Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Sensitive because the blue line between the two countries, Israel and Lebanon, is not demarcated on the ground. And challenging because you must have seen the kind of terrain that we operate in, it is rugged. And the climate conditions are harsh. One of the most hotly disputed areas between Israel and Lebanon is Shiba Farms, where Indian infantry battalion have maintained vigil for the last 20 years. This is a tri-junction, presently we are standing on Lebanese soil. Towards this side is Syria, towards the rear is Israel. The locals of Lebanon, they carried various demonstrations, be it political, be it religious, and they try to cross over blue line and it becomes a violation. Maybe there are armed hunters and shepherds, they generally cross blue line and go towards Israel side. So as per UN mandate and regulation, we are supposed to carry out strict vigilance and monitoring of blue line so that no untoward incident takes place. The medical team treats more than 400 patients every week with free medicines, free root canals, free dentures and free surgical treatments for the local population. We almost conduct four camps in a week. Places like Shiba, Hebris, Kafashuba, Almeri and Rasaya. We have no health facilities in this area. So once a week, there is a big queue here to see the doctors. After completely draining it out, he needs to inject this inflammation in the hoofs. This support is not even provided by the Lebanese government so you can imagine the benefits to the farmers. So these activities have actually been helpful in carrying out our operation. It has helped in our freedom of movement. When we move along the road or street, you see a bunch of kids smiling and waving hands towards you. That is an acknowledgement actually. Then you realise that you are here for peace and you are the ambassador of peace. I also interact with other peacekeepers but the Indians go out of their way. Go around and see how they are welcomed by the women and children, by the youth, by imparting skills, sharing knowledge, protecting the community. They are entrusted in our future and that is why they have our trust. For the first time in Indian history, a company of Kazakhstan army has been co-deployed by the Indian army and placed under the commanding officer of the Indian battalion here in Unifil. Gentlemen from the higher headquarters and the end resources we have come to know that there is a likely exhalation in the general area 4-3-1. The battalion commander has ordered a quick reaction team to move to the area of exhalation. In the case of Kazakhstan, what happened was they are unable to deploy in terms of large numbers because they are not yet attuned to UN practices and work methods. So at the UN does not have space for less than battalion strength. So as a matter of cooperation, we offered that they could work as part of our battalion. So it was an offer which we extended to the Kazakh government, they accepted it, it's working very well. Mentoring by India, Unifil, but providing a new TCC today the possibility to show of India, on the sacrifice of India because India brought Kazakhstan sacrificing some positions in its own unit. It was not able to provide additional places that India took its own vacancies from its own unit and deploy Kazakhstan. That show the dimension of India in peacekeeping. Nation willing and able to do that for others. India has been at the forefront of peacekeeping right from 1950 when it supplied medical personnel and troops to the UN Repatriation Commission in Korea. Since then, India has participated in 71 missions and contributed more than 240,000 troops the largest number from any country. Currently India is deployed in 8 out of 13 peacekeeping missions that include Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Golan Heights, Israel and Syria, Middle East, Abbey Eye, Western Sahara and Cyprus. India is one of the first signatories to the voluntary compact on eliminating sexual exploitation and abuse. Since 2000, the Center for UN Peacekeeping in New Delhi has been training international contingents and building capacities for peacekeeping deployment. Since its inception in the year 2000, the center has trained more than 8000 Indian peacekeepers and more than 1500 foreign peacekeepers. India has been able to deliver mission-specific tactical skills, training on vehicles, maintenance, logistics, medical and engineer-specific skills. India has, if I'm correct, 6,400 peacekeepers to the in-service. India has been an example of commitment to the United Nations Charter to the values of UN and with the sacrifice of the women and men to peacekeeping. India's long-standing service has not come without cost. Over 168 Indian peacekeepers have paid the ultimate price while serving with the United Nations. The highest number from any troop contributing country. Captain Gurbachan Singh Solaria is the only UN peacekeeper to receive the Param Veed Chakra, India's highest gallantry award for laying down his life while fighting rebels in Congo in 1961. In 2007, India became the first country to deploy a first-ever all-female force that helped to bring peace and Liberia in the wake of that country's brutal civil war. I paid a visit to the mission twice and I've seen the all-female Indian police units operating in doing their patrol and doing their protection of critical facilities and there's an exemplary story that we can tell still until today. It's difficult, but at the same time, you have to keep on proving that being a female unit is no less than anybody else. For me, I have to say that it's better than the most. For the simple reason that I find women more disciplined and more job-oriented. The contribution you have made to inspiring Liberian women to impart in them the spirit of professionalism, to encourage them to join those entities, those operations that protect the nation for that will always be grateful. As our security services now have 17% women, we owe that to you because it was not even 1% of three years ago. Control, control over. Control, past your matches over. 15 to 20 civilians. We're trying to cut the ends with our hands. Keep them there, and don't let the fence get in the way. I'm sending you a QB4, just made, over. Our task is to control the situation on Tower 1. Access of advance, EOC gate. Bloodshed and rebellion are nothing new for South Sudan. Five years after gaining independence, South Sudan was gripped by an ethnic civil war that has killed an estimated 50,000 and displaced over 1.6 million people. This is the setting for UNMISS, or United Nations mission in South Sudan that has been operating here since the creation of the country. Here in UNMISS, Indians are deployed in very difficult areas. They are very challenging. Backward areas, conflict-prone, where women are subjected to oppression, sexual violence. There is danger, yes. They operate basically in the greater upper-nile area of South Sudan. They have sacrificed. We've lost lives in almost every UNMISS. And this loss of life has been in protecting, not in combat, but basically in protecting other lives. This is where I think Indians have really stood out. We as peacekeepers, we have to operate into the remotest of areas which doesn't have any kind of connectivity. Either we are operating with the helicopters or we are operating by riverine petrol. And that's where the Indian military engineers come in, applauded by the UN time and again for their road construction, repair and renovation projects across South Sudan. In South Sudan, nearly 2% of the road is all weather road. This is because the soil here is a black cotton soil. So when it absorbs water, it becomes slushy and clay, on which the vehicle movement is impossible. So they camp for weeks, sometimes months, in the deadliest locations and build roads stretching hundreds of kilometers, facing a daily threat to their lives. We join our vehicles together and people have to live in their tailboats. There are threats of wild animals, of mosquitoes. There are threats of local thieves also. Still then, it's our job, it's our mandate. We do it to achieve our goal. I am Lieutenant Commander Joer, a patrol commander. Sir, today's mission is from Ben FU to Kodok. The distance from here is approximately 63 kilometers and depending upon the weather and visibility, we will take around 40 to 45 minutes to reach there. There is no road connectivity to Kodok. The only way to reach there is either through a helicopter or a riverine petrol. And mind you, the journey is through the famous white Nile, home to the Nile crocodiles and some of the largest amphibian reptiles. So during the crisis of 2017, that was a place from where once the crisis started and reached the town of Kodok, approximately 18 to 20,000 people flee from that area. The mission hierarchy decided that a UN footprint on the western banks will bring some security and normalcy to the area and once people see the UN presence there, they might come back. So the Indians were entrusted to set up a temporary base on the western banks of Nile and we did it in almost 90 days. Indian ingenuity, innovation and sacrifice are on display here in Kodok since it's a temporary base, a company of 120 peacekeepers live in tents. Though rainproof, they don't protect them from the mercury rising to 50 degrees Celsius. Approximately 3 to 4 snakes are being encountered every day. We have specially got from India anti-snake venom pan Africa in case of an emergency to contain the situation till the time evacuation takes place. Since it is not connected by road, Russian stocks come in helicopters once every two weeks. In case of non-availability of air assets, this gets delayed too. Keeping peace here, we have done few things for the people to improve their lifestyle, to improve connectivity between them. The enemies decided to put on ground in Kodok, the in buds. There was also an additional security. The population kept on increasing. They helped us in clearing the football ground for the first time after the crisis. We had a match. That is the hospital of Kodok town. It is run by an NGO called Kodak. They have around 60 beds and facilities are here but they don't have the doctor. That's why Indian peacekeepers, they keep a doctor in our base so that in any case of emergency, we can help them. When you travel to the interiors of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the sights behold you. DRC is home to the second largest rainforest in the world. Its mineral wealth is estimated at $24 trillion. But the average income of a DRC citizen is only $400 a year. Today there are more than 100 different armed groups vying for territory and control of mineral wealth in eastern DRC. If this wasn't enough, DRC has been grappling with the world's second largest Ebola epidemic. The peacekeeping of the past were based in, let's say, ceasefire, buffer zones where the peacekeepers were extremely respected and they were not target. This has not happened in this mission. This mission, the peacekeeper that is deployed here, he must be prepared to fight. To fight first to protect himself and second to protect the civilian population of this country. Because of the legacy of Rwandan genocide, because of the abundance of these mineral resources which is there in my area, I have got these armed groups which are roughly about 33 to 34% which are active in my area of responsibility. I have the maximum number of human rights violations in my area. The Indians are headquartered in Goma, home to Lake Kivu that conceals an enormous underwater concentration of carbon dioxide and methane. An untimely eruption could spread a lethal cloud across the city and spare no one. And then there is Mount Nyarigongo, one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. But with more than 2,600 troops on the ground, India is one of the biggest contingents in the biggest and most challenging peacekeeping mission under the UN flag. Protection of civilians is top priority for Monusco and that's why it launched the RDB, a rapid deployable battalion in 2017 where there is no military presence. We have to stay out in the open, close to built up areas where civilians are present. The places are generally interested with the armed group corridors moving around in these areas. My name is Captain Palli and we are going to be here for at least 13-14 months. We'll be coming regularly, we'll be attracting people on a very regular basis. We had gone for a local protection committee meeting and there was a woman who was a representative of a local women's body. For the last few months they were suffering from a very sort of embarrassing also or humiliating problem. There was a bandit, a lone bandit who used to force the women in the area whenever they used to move out to collect water or go to their market points to strip down and harass them in a very humiliating way. And it was really difficult for them to convey to the men who used to go out on patrol. They had no courage to tell either to the local police or to their family members or to anybody but they confided that into these female soldiers. And once we came to know of this, we then approached the police, the PNC of this place and then after that PNC people, they went there and they arrested and that person presently is in jail. When the first time we were meeting with those women, they told us that they respect us for the job that we are doing and we are doing a noble job. And my feeling on the other hand was that I was really inspired by women of this country in such a hard situation. They are actually running local bodies. They are still trying to collaborate, integrate and sort of bring a movement. Here we try and live up to their hopes and give them an opportunity to air out their grievances through Urafiki meat which in local language means friendship meat. We try to initiate these talks and then we encourage people to tell their problems where we try to get all the important stakeholders of the society and the government. We give a platform to the civilians to express their grievances and concerns to them. It is during one of such Urafiki meats, few women brought up the issue of unemployment for women especially during the non-harvesting season. We did some research on internet and came up with a simple yet effective way of generating revenue through a mushroom growing project. It was really amazing for me to see that from these natural things, the remains of maize, beans, corn, we can make mushroom. We used to work in the fields where there is kidnapping and sexual exploitation. So when we started earning more than $30 a month, it was unbelievable. Indian troops by nature are a people's army. And what a people's army and those who are involved in that do is that they know how to reach out to people. It enables better safety and security of the people. It enables them to do their jobs better. So that's one critical skill of engaging with people that many other troops may not have. How to stop the car, how to learn driving, what are the things in it, I will give you the information about it. Power string system, power string pump, or power string rejuvenation. We have a lot of people here. And all the people are here. DRC is a French country. The training is done in English and most NGOs are English speakers. Now when they come here to learn in English, the certificates which are given, when they go to present them to the NGOs which are speaking English, they like it very well and they are selected. After six weeks we start strengthening exercises. Who says language is a barrier to forge connections? India's level three hospital in Goma's only state of the art hospital in the city capable of carrying out life and limb saving surgeries. According to the mandate, they are supposed to treat UN staff only. But remember, these are Indians we are talking about. Saving lives, holding free cataract surgeries, going to the interiors to hold Ebola awareness camps or adopting an orphanage. Okay. They are the real needy people first. The lady when she told me that, you know, one of the things which hurt her the most and which led her to opening this orphanage was she says, I went, I saw a child breastfeeding on a dead mother. She says, that was the day I said, okay, I'll leave my profession as a teacher and do something for these children. Do that much then for us, whatever we are doing is just a small contribution towards mankind. The training and the experience that they bring to this mission. Indian troops have a large heart and that's what differentiates Indians from the others. Sometimes you move in some of our area of operation in different missions. You go somewhere and then you see that no one can live there and then you found the Tajman. So every time when you wear this uniform and see the flag on his chest, all kind of a problem, all kind of a complaint, all kind of excuses, which is pulling him back to home gets subsided with the pride of wearing this national flag on his chest.