UNITED NATIONS: Asserting that having women at top positions in UN peace operations is essential, India has voiced support for deploying more women peacekeepers and offered to increase its contribution to peace missions."The impact of armed conflict on women and girls, and their role in peace operations, remains a central issue in conflict situations," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji said at the UN Security Council debate on 'Sexual violence in armed conflict' here yesterday.He said India concurs with the UN Secretary General's report, which calls on member nations to reinforce the need for deployment of more women peacekeepers, women protection advisors and gender advisers in peace operations."We continue to lay emphasis on gender sensitive pre-deployment training and are willing to increase our contribution to peace operations," he said."We support the development of a gender resource package and training materials. More women at high decision making positions in multi-dimensional peace operations is undoubtedly essential," Mukerji said.India has contributed nearly 180,000 troops to UN peacekeeping missions, including the 103-strong Indian female police unit in the UN mission in Liberia.Mukerji said Indian women peacekeepers have helped to reduce conflict and confrontation by imbibing a greater sense of security to local populations and inspiring women and girls to push for their own rights and participation in the peace process.He said mainstreaming of gender perspective in peace operations is a prerequisite to achieve the ultimate goal of gender equality, women empowerment, sustainable development and sustainable peace and security."We are in strong agreement with the view that sexual violence in armed conflict is not incidental, but integrally linked with the strategic objectives, ideology and funding of extremist groups," Mukerji said.The situation is "worrisome" as perpetrators of armed conflict include those who commit egregious and heinous crimes, including sexual violence against women, girls, men and boys, and use sexual violence as a "tactic of terror", he said.He noted that the list of perpetrators of sexual violence in armed conflict includes mainly non-state actors who act beyond the pale of law."This strengthens our view that we should extend more support to national governments in their efforts to deal with this challenge," Mukerji said."Reintegration of survivors of sexual violence needs to be facilitated by providing a safe, secure and enabling environment, free from fear from stigmatisation and reprisals. Recourse by the Council to international punitive mechanisms should only be considered as a matter of last resort," he said.