Meet Droupadi Murmu’s Children: Itishree Murmu, Laxman Murmu and Sipun Murmu

Droupadi Murmu, the 15th President of India and the first person from a tribal community to hold the office, is the mother of three children: a daughter, Itishree Murmu, and two sons, Laxman Murmu and Sipun Murmu. Her sons have both passed away, leaving Itishree as her only surviving child.

Droupadi Murmu was born Durgi Tudu on June 20, 1958 (age 68), in the village of Uparbeda in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India. She belongs to the Santhal tribe, one of the largest Adivasi (indigenous tribal) communities in eastern India, and she practices the Brahma Kumaris spiritual path alongside her tribal heritage.

Her father, Biranchi Narayan Tudu, was a marginal farmer who, like her grandfather before him, served as the traditional head (Sarpanch) of the village council. She has a brother who passed away in the period between 2009 and 2015, during which she lost several close family members in quick succession.

She received her early education at a primary school in Uparbeda before moving to Bhubaneswar at age five for further studies, completing her secondary education at Girl’s High School, Unit-2, and earning a B.A. from Rama Devi Women’s College.

She married Shyam Charan Murmu (April 1, 1958 to August 1, 2014), a banker, in 1980. It was her only marriage, and the couple were together until his death from a prolonged illness in 2014.

Together, they had three children. No officially documented height is widely published for her. Murmu has lived a life shaped as much by personal tragedy as by political achievement, having lost her husband, both her sons, her mother, and a brother within a seven-year stretch.

Itishree Murmu

Itishree Murmu is President Droupadi Murmu‘s only surviving child and her sole daughter. She was born and raised in Rairangpur, a tribal-dominated town in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, into the same Santhal tribal household that shaped her mother’s early life.

After her schooling in Odisha, Itishree moved to Pune, Maharashtra, where she pursued a postgraduate diploma in management at the Suryadatta Institute of Management and Mass Communication.

She went on to build a career in banking and currently works as a manager at UCO Bank in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, choosing a quiet professional path rather than following her mother into politics.

On March 6, 2015, Itishree married Ganesh Chandra Hembram, who has been described in reports as a rugby player and who, like her, comes from a tribal background. The couple have children together and lives in Bhubaneswar, where Itishree and her mother have shared a home since her father died in 2014.

Itishree has remained close to her mother through the family’s hardest years, having endured the deaths of both her brothers and her father within a few years of one another.

She was present at Rashtrapati Bhavan in July 2022 when her mother was sworn in as President of India, and she has occasionally spoken to the press about her mother’s reaction to that historic moment, while otherwise keeping a low public profile.

Laxman Murmu

Laxman Murmu was one of President Droupadi Murmu‘s two sons. Accounts of the date of his death vary across reports, with some placing it in 2009 and others in 2013.

Still, he is consistently described as having died under circumstances that have never been fully or publicly explained. His passing was one of several devastating losses that struck the Murmu family between 2009 and 2015.

His death came as a profound blow to his mother, who has spoken about the depression and sleepless nights she endured in its aftermath.

In memory of her father and brother, Droupadi Murmu established the Shyam, Laxman, and Sipun (SLS) Memorial Residential School in Odisha, an institution dedicated to providing free education to tribal children, particularly girls.

Sipun Murmu

Sipun Murmu was President Droupadi Murmu‘s other son. He died in a road accident, with reports placing his death either in late 2012 or in January 2013, following closely after the loss of his brother Laxman.

His death deepened the grief that had already begun reshaping his mother’s personal life.

Those close to the Murmu family have recalled that, even at the time of Sipun‘s death, Droupadi Murmu asked people not to come to the house as mourners but as guests, choosing composure over visible despair.

It was in this period that she leaned further into the Brahma Kumaris spiritual movement as a source of strength. Like his brother, Sipun is honoured through the SLS Memorial Residential School founded by their mother.

What People Ask