The swearing-in of Droupadi Murmu as the 15th President of India is a truly momentous event. She is the first person belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community and the second woman to occupy the highest constitutional post of the country. She is also the youngest person to be elected as the President and the first to be born in independent India. She defeated Yashwant Sinha in the presidential polls, winning almost two-third of the votes of the electoral college.
The ascent of an Adivasi woman from a humble background to the highest constitutional post is an unprecedented triumph, at least symbolically if not substantially. Ms. Murmu was born in a village in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha and belongs to the Santhal tribe, one of the largest ST communities in India. She was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Odisha, representing Rairangpur for two terms between 2000 and 2009, and went on to serve as the Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021.
This remarkable journey from Rairangpur to Raisina Hill may not have been possible without the constitutional reforms that institutionalised representative local governments. Ms. Murmu began her political career as a councillor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat, where she was elected from a ward reserved for women from ST communities.
