Droupadi Murmu created history by becoming the first tribal woman to be the President of India. After taking oath as the 15th President of India on Monday, Murmu said, "Reaching the Presidential post is not my personal achievement, it is the achievement of every poor in India."

I am the first President of the country who was born in independent India. We will have to speed up our efforts to meet the expectations that our freedom fighters had with the citizens of independent India: President Droupadi Murmu

(Source: Sansad TV) pic.twitter.com/dIkmQHqgiR— ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2022 Early days

Murmu has always been known for her simplicity which comes from her humble beginnings, which is an antithesis of her challenger Yashwant Singh, a former BJP leader who hails from an upper caste family and was an IAS officer before joining politics.

Murmu was born on June 20, 1958, in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, to Biranchi Narayan Tudu, a farmer from Baldaposi village. Murmu belongs to the Santhal tribe of Odisha, which is spread over four states and is one of the country’s largest Scheduled Tribes after the Bhils and Gonds. Battling with poverty, her childhood had been full of challenges. Overcoming the odds, Murmu did her graduation in Arts from Ramadevi Women's College in Bhubaneswar and worked as an honourary assistant professor at the Shri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur. She was later appointed as a junior assistant in the irrigation department of Odisha.

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“I come from a society that is very rigid when it comes to perceptions about women and they would raise questions on any woman stepping outside the confines of their homes,” Economic Times quoted her as once saying.

Murmu started her political journey in 1997 with the BJP. She was elected as the councillor of Rairangpur district of Odisha in the same year. She also served as the vice-president of the BJP’s Scheduled Tribes Morcha. She was elected as the legislator twice, on a BJP ticket, in 2000 and 2009. Murmu also served as the transport and commerce minister of the state till 2002 and later made in charge of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

In 2015, she was appointed as the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She held the position until July 2021. In her capacity as the first tribal governor of the state, Murmu returned two controversial bills — the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act and the Chhotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act — in view of the widespread unrest from tribes, who viewed the move as an attempt by the state to dilute their rights over their land, Deutsche Welle reported.

Murmu’s refusal to sign the amendments had forced BJP to rethink its strategy on the issue.

Personal tragedy

Murmu suffered a series of tragedies in her personal life. She lost her 25-year-old son in 2009 under mysterious circumstances, following which she turned towards spirituality. She had then joined the Brahma Kumaris movement. While she was recovering from her loss, Murmu lost her second son in 2013 in a road accident. The same month, Murmu’s brother and mother passed away, leaving the social worker-turned-politician devastated.

Despite successive losses, Murmu continued to work for social change. In 2014, she lost her husband Shyam Charan Murmu, a bank officer. Her daughter, Itishri Murmu, who works as a bank officer with the UCO Bank in Bhubaneswar, told the media that her mother showed “exemplary composure” in the face of challenges, Open Magazine wrote.

Not a surprise

When the NDA announced her candidature for the presidential election, it did not come as a surprise. Back in 2017, the BJP-led NDA had considered her for the post but settled for Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit party leader, instead.

Murmu is seen as a person who is accessible not just for politicians and officials but also for ordinary people, Open Magazine reported. She is unassuming and self-made and a quintessential candidate for the presidential post, who could strike a chord with the marginalised.

"Her rise epitomises a struggle, and she has worked her way up — a reflection of her political acuteness," Ritambhara Hebbar, a professor at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, told DW.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Jul 21, 2022 4:52 PM IST