Draupadi Murmu

The fifteenth and current President of India is Draupadi Murmu. She was formerly the governor of Jharkhand and an Odisha cabinet minister. Murmu was up in a modest household in the isolated Mayurbhanj tribal division of Odisha. She has worked as a junior assistant and an assistant teacher for the state irrigation department of Odisha.

In 1997, Mrs. Murmu began her political career with the BJP and served as a councilor in Rairangpur. Before being twice elected to the Odisha state legislative assembly on the BJP ticket, she served as the president of the Scheduled Tribe Morcha of the BJP's Odisha unit. From 2002 to 2004, she was a cabinet minister in the BJD-BJP coalition led by Naveen Patnaik, during which time she was honored with the Best Legislative Member Award.

Murmu reached the peak of public life and set historic milestones in politics and social services, despite the struggle and sadness that continued to dominate her personal life. She lost her husband and two adult boys, but she never wavered. As the first woman governor of Jharkhand, the first tribal governor of a tribal state, and the first governor born in Odisha, Mrs. Murmu made history. Draupadi Murmu is joined in her family by her son-in-law Ganesh Hembram, a rugby player, and her only daughter Itishree Murmu, a bank employee.

Information

• Name - Draupadi Murmu
• Date of Birth - 20 June 1958
• Age - 65
• Father's Name - Biranchi Narayan Tudu
• Siblings - Bhagat Tudu and Sarani Tudu
• Husband's Name - Late Shyam Charan Murmu
• Children - Itishri Murmu, Laxman Murmu
• Birth Place - Baidaposi Village, Odisha
• Hometown - Mayurbhanj, Odisha
• School - K.B. HS Uparbeda School, Mayurbhanj
• College - Rama Devi Women's College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
• Educational Qualifications - B.A.
• Hobbies- Reading and Knitting
• Religion - Hinduism
• Ethnicity - Santhal Tribe
• Category - Schedule Tribe
• Profession - Politician
• Political Affiliation - Bhartiya Janta Party
• Award - Neelkanth Award for Best MLA by Odisha Legislative Assembly 2007
• Net Worth - ₹ 6,10,000 ( as of 2009)

Personal Life

Draupadi Murmu was born on 20 June 1958 in a Santhal Tribal family in Uparbeda village under Kusumi Tehsil, Mayurbhanj district Odisha. Her father's name was Biranchi Narayan Tudu, and he was the village head under the system of Panchayati Raj. Her grandfather, too, serves as the village headman. Her maternal grandmother motivated her to study, and she was the only one among three siblings who completed her graduation from college. She always wanted to support her family financially, and after completing her education, she started working.

Draupadi was married to Shyam Charan Murmu, who worked as an officer in a bank. She left her job after marriage to take care of their children. The couple had three children, one girl, and two boys. After a while, she started working as a teacher when her children grew up and got involved in their studies. Her husband supported her political career, and she successfully started it as she was quite known among the parents of her students they knew her personality. She was popular for her social work.

In her personal life, she faced a tragedy and a rough patch when both her husband and sons died. She lost her 25-year-old son in 2009 in mysterious circumstances; she was recovering from the loss when she lost her second son in an accident in 2013, followed by the death of her brother and mother in the same month. A year later, in 2014, she lost her husband due to cardiac arrest, which made her depressed in her personal life. To overcome the grief, she found comfort in meditation and yoga and took the help of counseling to overcome this tragic phase of her life. Her only daughter Itishri works at UCO Bank and is married to rugby player Ganesh Hembram.

Career

Before entering the realm of a political career, she worked as a junior assistant in the state irrigation department from 1979-1983. She later also worked as a teacher. From 1994 she worked as an honorary teacher in Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research in Rairangpur. While working there, she also got offers from different social institutions to be part of social work. She worked as a social activist and visited different villages to promote educational, social and cultural development.

She joined Bhartiya Janta Party, and her political career started in 1997 when she was elected as a councilor of the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. In the same year, she was also elected as the Vice-Chairperson of Rairangpur NAC. She easily won this election as she was quite loved by the people of that area and popular for her social work.

She served as the National Vice President of BJP's Scheduled Tribe Morcha. In 2000 and 2009, she was elected as the MLA on the BJP ticket twice from the constituency of Rairangpur. She was a former minister in the state of Odisha and won the MLA seat from the constituency of Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj. In 2007 she was conferred Nilkantha Award for the Best MLA by Odisha Legislative Assembly.

During the BJD (Biju Janta Dal) and BJP coalition government in Odisha, she took oath as the state minister. From March 6, 2000, to August 6, 2002, she served as the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Commerce and Transport and from August 6, 2002, to May 16, 2004, she served as Minister of Fisheries and Animal Development.

From 2015-2021 she also served as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand. She was the first governor in Jharkhand who completed the five-year office term and also the first person belonging to the scheduled tribe. She was also the first woman and tribal leader from Odisha to be selected for the post of Governor. Though her term of office was completed on May 18, 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, there was no new appointment made by the president for the post, and hence she served as the governor of Jharkhand for 6 years, 1 month, and 18 days.

Governor of Jharkhand

On May 18, 2015, Murmu was sworn in as Governor of Jharkhand, making her the first woman to hold the role. Throughout her six-year term as governor, the BJP held the majority and the balance of power in the Jharkhand and Union governments. Hemant Soren was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand in 2019 by her.

Former BJP politician and activist Ratan Tirkey claimed that Murmu had not gone far enough to ensure that the rights to self-governance provided to indigenous tribes were effectively carried out. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996, also known as PESA, and the Fifth Schedule both confer these privileges. According to Tirkey, "the then governor never exercised her powers to implement the Fifth Schedule provisions and Pesa in letter and spirit despite numerous requests." Starting in May 2015 and lasting through July 2021 was her six-year term as governor.

President of India

In the presence of previous presidents, the vice president, the prime minister, and other delegates, Droupadi Murmu took the oath on July 26, 2022, to become the 15th President of India. The oath was delivered by the 48th Chief Justice of India, N. V. Ramana. She is the first president from one of India's recognized tribal clans.

She introduced the government program "Pradhanmantri TB Mukht Bharat" in September 2022, which aims to eradicate tuberculosis from the nation. She inaugurated the ten-day state festival known as "Mysuru Dasara" in Karnataka, becoming the first president of India to do so. In the first few months, Murmu visited the northeastern parts of the nation, such as Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim, and participated in ceremonies for several development projects.

Shortly after taking office as president, she made her maiden trip home to Odisha in November 2022 to participate in several schemes' launches. She paid a visit to her alma mater before meeting school children on the side of the road and walking two km to offer worship to the gods of Puri Jagannath Temple.

She was the third president to fly in a sortie fighter jet when she took a historic flight in a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet at Tezpur Air Station in Assam in April 2023. She spent around 30 minutes flying over the Himalayan mountains, the Brahmaputra and Tezpur valleys. She afterward referred to it as an "exhilarating experience".

There was controversy when Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the New Parliament House as part of the Central Vista Project in May 2023. The opposition boycotted the ceremony and demanded that Murmu, the constitutional head of state, inaugurate it. The prime minister represents the legislature's confidence, and Murmu afterward said she was happy and profoundly pleased with the inauguration.

Some Lesser Known Facts

• Draupadi's grandfather and her father was village headman.
• From 1979 to 1983, she worked as a junior assistant in the state irrigation department of Odisha, and she quit the job to take care of her children. Later she joined the honorary post of teacher in an institution without any salary.
• She was very active in social work in her area and promoted women's empowerment along with the educational and social upliftment of tribal populations.
• She was the first tribal and female governor of Jharkhand and the first person to complete the five-year tenure of the governor's office in Jharkhand.
• In 2016, she announced that after her death, she would donate her eyes to the Kashyap Memorial Hospital in Ranchi.
• Late TV actor Pratyusha Banerjee's parents met Draupadi with a request for a CBI probe in the death case of their daughter in 2016.
• After the death of her two sons and husband, to fight depression, she started following Brahmakumari Nirmala. On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan in 2018, Brahmakumari Nirmala tied Rakhi to Draupadi.
• She reviewed the administrative and academic functions of different universities through video conferencing in 2021.
• Reportedly she had converted the house of her in-laws into a trust. She donated this to a school. She named the trust SLS after the name of her husband and sons. The trust is built in an area of 4 acres, and she also built a memorial in the school for her husband and sons.
• She has always been outspoken about tribal rights and worked for their upliftment.
• She has kept all her awards and recognitions in her ancestral house.
• She will file her presidential nomination on 25th June 2022, and the election will be held on 18th July 2022.
• If she is selected as the President of India, she will be the first person of Odisha origin to become the President. Though V.V. Giri, the former President of India, was from Odisha, he was of Telugu origin.

Conclusion

The life of Draupadi Murmu has been a fascinating journey of resiliency, activism, and empowerment, to sum up. She made an enduring contribution to society from her roots in a tribal community through her appointment as India's first female tribal governor. Numerous people have been motivated by her persistent dedication to social justice, women's rights, and the advancement of marginalized populations. The memory of Draupadi Murmu stands as a reminder of the ability of willpower and compassion to transform. Her accomplishments have opened the path for upcoming leaders and continue to spark optimism for a more inclusive and egalitarian society. Her life is proof of the long-lasting influence one person may have when motivated by a strong sense of purpose and a dedication to the betterment of others.