A Brief Info about Droupadi Murmu, President of India
Here are five things about the new incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan, who takes office in the historic 75th year of the nation’s Independence.
Murmu has been a trailblazer from a very young age. Born into a Santhal family in 1958, she was the first girl in Uparbeda, one of the seven revenue villages in Uparbeda panchayat in Odisha’s backward Mayurbhanj district, to go to college — the Ramadevi Women’s College, now the Ramadevi Women’s University in Bhubaneswar.
Before beginning her career in politics, Murmu was a teacher at the Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre in Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj and later worked as a junior assistant in the irrigation and power department of the Odisha government.
Successful political career
Murmu won an election to the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat in 1997 and served as councilor. She was elected to two terms in the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and 2004 and served as a Minister from 2000 to 2004 in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD-BJP coalition government.
She held the portfolio of Commerce and Transport and, subsequently, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry in the state government. As Transport Minister of Odisha, she was credited with having set up transport offices in all 58 subdivisions of the state.
Murmu also served as vice-president of the BJP’s Scheduled Tribes Morcha.
Her personal struggles
Despite a successful political career, Murmu also faced some hurdles along the way. In 2009, she contested the Lok Sabha election from the Mayurbhanj constituency but lost as the BJD and BJP severed ties.
The electoral setback coincided with a tumultuous period in her personal life. Over the next six years, she lost three of her closest family members — her eldest son Laxman Murmu in 2009, her younger son Sippun Murmu in 2013, and then her husband Shyam Charan Murmu in 2014 — in a series of unfortunate incidents.
Governor of Jharkhand
Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.
In November 2016, the BJP government of the state led by Chief Minister Raghubar Das passed amendments to two centuries-old land laws — the Chhotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act — that would have ensured easy transfer of land for industrial use. After widespread protests by Adivasis who believed that the move would limit their rights over land, Murmu returned the Bills in June 2017 and asked the government to clarify how the amendments would benefit tribals.
The refusal to give her assent to controversial Bills passed by the government of the party to which she had herself belonged, won Murmu's admiration and respect.
Murmu, a Santhal leader and an inspirational figure for her community and for women in general, has frequently weighed in on issues that Adivasis face. On November 24, 2018, speaking at an international conference on financial inclusion, Governor Murmu said that even though the Jharkhand state government (then headed by the BJP) and the Centre were working to extend the benefits of banking services and other schemes to tribals, the condition of SCs and STs “remain extremely poor”. Murmu also called for the translation of literature on Adivasi languages and culture.
Murmu, 64, is only the second former member of the BJP after President Ram Nath Kovind to be elected President. A month younger than Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who assumed office in 1977, she will be the youngest president ever. Murmu bagged votes from 2,824 electors, including 540 MPs, while Sinha won the support of 1,877 electors, including 208 MPs.
Brief information on Droupadi Murmu Work
- From Rairangpur to Raisina Hill:
- June 20, 1958: Droupadi Murmu was born
- 1971: Completed primary schooling (up to Class VII) from Uparbeda UPME School, Mayurbhanj
- 1974: Completed high school education from Capital Girls’ High School, Unit-II, Bhubaneswar
- 1979: Completed her graduation from Rama Devi Women’s College.
- 1979: Started working as junior assistant in the department of irrigation and power, Odisha government
- 1981: Got married to Shyam Charan Murmu, a banker
- 1994: Started teaching at the Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Centre, Rairangpur
- 1997: Joined the BJP. The same year she became the councillor of Rairangpur NAC
- 2000: She was elected to the assembly on a BJP ticket from Rairangpur constituency
- 2000-2004: She served as commerce and transport minister and later as fisheries and animal resources development minister in Naveen Patnaik’s first term as chief minister
- 2004: She was re-elected as Rairangpur MLA 2007: Received the Best MLA of the Year award
- 2006-2009: Served as the Odisha BJP ST Morcha president
- 2013-2015: She was the Mayurbhanj district president of the BJP
- 2015-2021: She served as the governor of Jharkhand