Vocal For Local - President Droupadi Murmu

Today is a such a momentous day for our India!

We proudly welcome a great and truly deserving woman to the top office. An emotional moment for all of us.

Smt. Droupadi Murmu, an educated, dedicated, resilient, empowered and inspiring woman, has been sworn in as our country's fifteenth President.

She is our country's First Citizen and the commander-in-chief of Army, Navy, and Air Force.

She is a symbol & triumph of hope, courage, sustainability, humility, and the power of education.

Her entire career and life's story is so inspiring. Despite personal loss and having lost both her sons and husband, she never gave up.

She continued working for social causes like a true karamveer.

She has sorted many problems and issues for others.

She has made history. She has many firsts to her credit.

She is the first President to be born in independent India.

She is the first tribal leader to hold position as the president.

A Historic Day For The Nation . 🙏 Hearty Congratulations to Hon’ble Smt. Droupadi Murmu ji on being sworn in as the 15th President of India.@rashtrapatibhvn #PresidentofIndia pic.twitter.com/8XDtyQkUWe

— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) July 25, 2022

"Morning shows the day". She used to rank first in her class. She had also been class-monitor in her school. 

She was the first girl from her home-town Rairangpur, a remote place in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, to go outside to study. She went to state-capital, Bhubaneswar, to do her schooling and then she studied at the Rama Devi Women's College at Bhubaneswar. She was the first woman graduate of her town.

Ever since her nomination was announced, there has been much celebration in her school and also in several places in India - especially in her home-state Odisha, and in Jharkhand where she was the former Governor.

Students of her school in Rairangpur are dancing and are so excited! 

One student said that today is "utsaba" (festival) time and they are celebrating all festivals today! 

Students also said that thanks to Madam, now their town, district and state is in the news and more people have heard and learned about "Rairangpur", "Uparbeda", "Mayurbhanj" of Odisha, India. 

They cannot express how happy they are.

Tribals are celebrating on the streets by wearing traditional clothes and performing traditional dance with so much joy and enthusiasm.

It was great to find interest of the news reporter of NDTV who enquired about the name of the local handloom sarees most girls were wearing. The girls proudly shared- "Santhali".

The news anchor of Kanak TV was also dressed in Mayurbhanj's Santhali Saree.

Mayurbhanj's Santhal/Santhali Saree is also called Jhalah. It has checks and traditional designs like flower, hut, bird etc on body and aanchal.

We appreciate and request more such representation of our handlooms and traditional products by and via the media.

Today, Madam Murmu's swearing in ceremony was organized.

"Bharat Mata ki Jai", "Jai Jagannath", and "Vande Mataram" could be heard from the audience.

Droupadi Madam shared wonderful words in her inspiring inaugural speech with terms like- "Amrit Kaal", "Azaadi ka amrit mahotsav", "Vocal for Local", "Atmanirnirbhar Bharat", "women empowerment", "sabka prayaas aur sabka kartavya", "nishta aur lagan", "ekjut", "jagat kalyan", "kartavya path" and many such.

She also shared these Odia words of "Shree Jagannath Khetra's famous poet" and saint Bhima Bhoi ji:

"Mo jibana pachhe narke padithau...Jagata udhara heu".

Madam President also shared the meaning in Hindi:

"Apne jeevan ke hit-ahit se bada- jagat kalyan ke liye karya karna hota hai." 

मैंने अपने अब तक के जीवन में जन-सेवा में ही जीवन की सार्थकता को अनुभव किया है।

जगन्नाथ क्षेत्र के एक प्रख्यात कवि भीम भोई जी की कविता की एक पंक्ति है:

“मो जीवन पछे नर्के पड़ी थाउ, जगत उद्धार हेउ”।

अर्थात, अपने जीवन के हित-अहित से बड़ा जगत कल्याण के लिए कार्य करना होता है।

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2022

Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu ji also shared the same Odia words and the translation in English:

"Working for the welfare of the world is greater than own interest."

“Working for welfare of world is greater than own interest”
-Poet Bhima Bhoi

Words shared by #DroupadiMurmu Madam @rashtrapatibhvn & @VPSecretariat🙏#vocalforlocal #AtmanirbharBharat

Sambalpuri Sonepuri Phodakumbha Kusta Ganga Jamuna Saree with Bomkai & Bandha on anchal pic.twitter.com/4Q2nzKjrzx

— Anita Sabat (@anitaexplorer) July 25, 2022

Today, she wore an apt and wonderful Odisha Handloom silk saree on the special occasion.

Initially, we felt her saree has the national flag's colours - saffron, green and white. However, instead of orange, the colour on top border is red. Still, it reminds us of our Indian National Flag.

Great choice and symbolic representation!

The body of the saree is plain white. It is a type of Ganga Jamuna Saree i.e. sarees having two different colours on the borders- this one has red and green on the top and bottom borders respectively. 

There is Kumbha work- i.e. the triangles or temples on the border. Though many weavers initially said that it is "Phoda Kumbha", it is actually, "Baadhi Kumbha" made by special tie-and-dye technique. The names, sizes, and patterns of the Kumbha vary as per the weaving process and place. 

Odisha has many varieties of Kumbha on the rich handloom sarees. 

Madam's Saree's aanchal has mostly Bomkai (i.e. Jala) work and many weavers say there is a little bit of Bandha i.e. Ikat work too.

Such type of sarees are woven in Sonepur and are a type of Sonepuri Saree. 

Most weavers said that it is a Silk Saree, and not Cotton.

So, the correct name of the Odisha Handloom Saree is- 

Sonepuri Baadhi Kumbha Ganga Jamuna Silk Saree with Bomkai & Bandha work on aanchal.

(NOTE- IT IS NOT SANTHALI/JHALAH/PHUTA Saree of Mayurbhanj.)

Juhar 🙏
Thank you Madam President #DroupadiMurmu ji 🙏

Thank you for always supporting weavers & local products.

Special #OdishaHandloom Saree for today- 🇮🇳flag colours-
Sambalpuri Sonepuri Phodakumbha Kusta Ganga Jamuna Silk Saree with Bomkai aanchal#vocalforlocal #vocal4gi https://t.co/eg6ZHyopfL pic.twitter.com/hQWIHpcdjB

— Odita Trust ଓଡ଼ିତ ଟ୍ରଷ୍ଟ (@OditaTrust) July 25, 2022

Madam has always been using, gifting, and promoting local products. 

These are some images from the past:

In this, she can be seen with Orissa Pattachitra painting along with Baba Ramdev and Patanjali head.

After the results of the 15th Presidential election were declared, she was gifted the Gita Govinda Khandua by Union Education Minister, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan. 

आदरणिया श्रीमती द्रौपदी मुर्मू जी को मिलकर ऐतिहासिक विजय पर शुभकामनाएँ दी।

15वें राष्ट्रपति के रूप में उनका चुनाव हर भारतीय के लिए गर्व की बात है। भारत के सर्वोच्च संवैधानिक पद पर आसीन होने वाली पहली आदिवासी महिला, श्रीमती मुर्मू जी नए भारत की नारी शक्ति का अप्रतिम प्रतीक हैं। pic.twitter.com/7Mb7jiBL07

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 21, 2022

Droupadi Madam has also been wearing many varieties of Odisha Handloom in the past. Many of these sarees have got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

Gopalpur Tussar is one of her favourites:

You can read more in this report by Dainik Bhaskar newspaper.

Droupadi Madam has Sambalpuri Bandha Sarees and Bomkai Sarees too.

The following Saree is an Ek Phulia Saree from Sonepur-

She has been seen in Khandua Sarees.

Also, in Mankidia Tussar:

When I shared the above image of Madam as my WhatsApp status, one of my friends, Deepti, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, responded that her mother, Smt. Urmila Singh, too has a similar saree! 

PC: Mrs. Deepti Chauhan

We must all endeavour to promote our Made In India goods. All must use local products and support our artisans.

In her speech, Madam Murmu also shared about mother nature and that because of her upbringing, she understands that all must take care of the environment. She also shared that this is everyone's responsibility.

मेरा जन्म तो उस जनजातीय परंपरा में हुआ है जिसने हजारों वर्षों से प्रकृति के साथ ताल-मेल बनाकर जीवन को आगे बढ़ाया है।

मैंने जंगल और जलाशयों के महत्व को अपने जीवन में महसूस किया है।

हम प्रकृति से जरूरी संसाधन लेते हैं और उतनी ही श्रद्धा से प्रकृति की सेवा भी करते हैं।

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2022

Using our local products is a great step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.

We are proud to welcome such a down-to-earth and vocal for local President.

May Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu bless her and our India.

Jaya Shree Jagannatha.

Bande Utkala Janani.

Vande Mataram

Bharat Mata Ki Jai.

Delhi | President Droupadi Murmu receives ceremonial salute at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Former President Ram Nath Kovind also present with her. pic.twitter.com/TEMRPPxn0k

— ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2022

Images Courtesy: Screenshots from Madam's swearing-in ceremony LIVE telecast online and tweets and pics from respective social-media handles.