Droupadi Murmu · Public Service
Droupadi Murmu was born on 20 June 1958 in Uparbeda village, Mayurbhanj district, Odisha, into a Santhal tribal family — her father and grandfather were village-level Panchayati Raj leaders. She was the first girl from her village to attend college.
BA in Political Science and Economics from Ramadevi Women's College, Bhubaneswar (1979).
She began as a junior assistant in the Odisha Irrigation Department (1979-1983), then taught at the Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre in Rairangpur (1994-1997) before entering public life. She served as an elected councillor and later MLA for Rairangpur (2000-2009), holding state ministerial portfolios in Odisha, before becoming Governor of Jharkhand in 2015 — the first woman and first tribal Governor of that state, and to date the only Jharkhand Governor to complete a full term. In 2022 she was elected the 15th President of India.
First person from a Scheduled Tribe community, and the youngest person, to become President of India (took office 2022, age 64). As Jharkhand Governor, she returned two controversial land-tenancy amendment bills (the CNT and SPT Acts) that Adivasi groups said would have weakened tribal land protections. At her 2022 inauguration she said: "I started my life journey from a small tribal village."