THE POWER OF 100: POLITICS

ACHIEVERS ACROSS THE DOMAINS OF POLITICS, BUSINESS, SCIENCE, THE ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, EDUCATION, LAW AND DEFENCE WHO ARE SHOWING US WHAT WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT LOOKS LIKE

- Sunil Menon, Sonal Khetarpal, Sonali Acharjee, Arkamoy Datta Majumdar, Sunil Menon, Prashant Srivastava, Dhaval S. Kulkarni

THE FIRST CITIZEN

Droupadi Murmu, 65 President of India

OUT THERE, INDIA'S TRIBALS LIVE ON the furthermost orbits of the State's social planetary system-the circles of power, patronage and paternalistic welfare that radiate outward from New Delhi and structure the country's economic pyramid. But since last year, she has been a resident of the absolute centre: a First Citizen from among the First Peoples. As the 15th occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Droupadi Murmu manifests in her person a grand gesture of inclusivity. Also, a radiant picture of what's possible, what can come from the vast human potential that stays untapped, from a social grouping where enforced privation gives us the country's grimmest statistics.

Murmu is neither a stranger nor a silver-spooned exception to the harsh realities that define life for the Adivasis, having risen up from the parched earth herself. She was born to a Santhali farmer in Mayurbhanj, Odisha-a district with a nearly 60 per cent tribal population, and a state with a mosaic of 63 Adivasi communities, the most in India. Now she stands like a beacon for the entire 100 million-plus tribals of India.

She managed to follow a resolute path to self-actualisation because she could: her family were traditional village heads and the homestead was in the vicinity of Rairangpur, a liaison town between Asia's oldest modern iron mines and steel cities like Jamshedpur and Durgapur. So, over half a century of modernity had flowed down roads just a handful of miles away. That momentum is what took her as a child out of Uparbeda village, to schooling and graduation in Bhubaneswar, and after brief stints as a clerk and teacher, to nagar panchayat councillorship, membership of the BJP, the first of her two stints as state legislator (winning a 'Best MLA' award in 2007), then governorship and finally Raisina Hill.