Droupadi Murmu

Droupadi Murmu (born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician and former teacher who is serving as the 15th and current President of India since 2022.

She won the 2022 presidential election as a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

She is the first person belonging to the tribal community and also the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hold the office.

She is also the youngest person to occupy the post and the first President born in an independent India.

Droupadi Murmu was born to a Santali family on 20 June 1958, in Uparbeda village in the Baidaposi area of Rairangpur, Odisha.

Her father Biranchi Narayan Tudu was a farmer.

Her father and grandfather were traditional heads (designated Sarpanch) of the village council (Gram Panchayat).

Her family named her Durgi Tudu, after her paternal grandmother, and her nickname was Batti which eventually became Puti.

She was renamed by her school teacher to Droupadi, and her name was changed several times to those including Durpadi and Dorpdi in the past.

Murmu studied elementary education at the local primary school in Upar Beda.

At age five, she moved to Bhubaneswar for higher studies.

She completed secondary education from Girl's High School Unit-2, and graduated in B.A. from Rama Devi Women's College.

She married Shyam Charan Murmu (1 April 1958 – 1 August 2014), a banker, in 1980 with whom she had two sons and a daughter.

Before entering politics, she worked as a clerk in the State Irrigation and Power Department from 1979 to 1983, and then as a teacher in Rairangpur from 1994 until 1997.

From 1979 to 1983, Murmu worked as a junior assistant at the irrigation department of the Government of Odisha.

From 1994 to 1997, she then worked as a teacher at the school Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Centre in Rairangpur, where she taught Hindi, Odia, mathematics, and geography.

She never claimed a full salary at the school.

These rights were granted under the Fifth Schedule and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 or PESA.

Tirkey said, "Despite several requests, the then governor never exercised her powers to implement the Fifth Schedule provisions and Pesa in letter and spirit".

In 1997, Droupadi Murmu was elected as the councillor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat as an independent candidate from a reserved seat for women.

She then joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur Assembly constituency from 2000 to 2009, and as Minister of State (Independent Charge), Government of Odisha from 2000 to 2004.

She won the 2000 Odisha Legislative Assembly election from the Rairangpur Assembly constituency and served two terms in the Odisha Legislative Assembly between 2000 and 2009.

During the BJP and BJD coalition government in Odisha, she was the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transportation from 6 March 2000 to 6 August 2002, and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development from 6 August 2002 to 16 May 2004.

In 2007, she received the Nilkanth Award for the Best MLA of the Odisha Legislative Assembly.

Her husband, two sons (Sipun died in a road accident and Laxman died in mysterious circumstances), mother, and a brother all died in a span of 7 years, from 2009 to 2015.

She is a follower of the Brahma Kumaris spiritual movement.

Murmu is an admirer of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

She has also hailed Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar.

In 2009, she lost the Lok Sabha election from Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency as the BJD and BJP alliance had ended.

She was elected to the BJP National Executive (ST Morcha) in 2013, and was the district president until 2015.

Previously, she served as the 8th Governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021, being the longest serving Governor for that state.

Murmu was sworn in as the Governor of Jharkhand on 18 May 2015, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

The BJP was in power in the Jharkhand Government for most of her six-year tenure as a governor and was also in power in the Union Government throughout her tenure.

Her six-year tenure as Governor began in May 2015 and ended in July 2021.

In 2016–2017, the Raghubar Das ministry was seeking amendments to the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949.

These two original laws had safeguarded the rights of tribal communities on their land.

According to the existing laws, land transactions could only be done between tribal communities.

She administered the oath of office to Hemant Soren as Chief Minister of Jharkhand in 2019.

Ratan Tirkey, a former BJP politician and activist, said that Murmu had not done enough to make sure that the self-governance rights granted to tribal communities were properly implemented.